Frank Lampard’s infamous move from West Ham United to Chelsea will forever rankle with some in claret and blue, but that he started his Premier League career at Upton Park owed much to his boyhood love of the East London giants.
And, of course, the Upton Park legacy carved out by his legendary father.
Playing over 500 games in two decades as a West Ham United player, Frank Lampard Sr returned to his old stomping ground as an assistant to manager, and brother-in-law, Harry Redknapp between 1994 and 2001.
Lampard Sr had the luxury of watching his son rise through the ranks at Rush Green, then, from a front-row seat. And who knows? Perhaps junior could take a leaf out of his father’s book, at some point down the line.
Hammers News reported, shortly before Nuno Espirito Santo replaced Graham Potter at the London Stadium, that sporting director Mark Noble was an admirer of Frank Lampard, the manager. And, clearly, Lampard has forgiven his West Ham critics, even if that feeling may not be reciprocated by some who remember his controversial departure to rivals Chelsea a quarter of a century ago.
Speaking on Lifejacket’s The Boot Room podcast, the Champions League and Premier League winner reflects on the decisions which took him to Upton Park in the first place, rejecting London neighbours Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal along the way.
Frank Lampard explains why he rejected Arsenal and Tottenham for West Ham United
While Sir Alex Ferguson was ‘desperate’ to sign Joe Cole for Manchester United before his breakout in claret and blue, Lampard had spells in the respective academies of two more Premier League powerhouses.
“I got scouted by Tottenham. I ended up going there once a week,” Lampard says. “They had an amazing coach called Jonny Martin, and it felt so futuristic! It was step-overs, technique, all these things.
“Then Arsenal came in for me. I trained there one night. And then West Ham were the last to come in at that time. So I would do probably three nights a week training at these clubs, which was great for me.
“[Training at multiple clubs] doesn’t happen now. When you get signed, you have to commit to a club at a very young age. So my dad, probably being wise to it, was like, ‘Do them all, son. Get a bit of Arsenal, get a bit of Tottenham, West Ham, take your time to make your decision’.”
That decision, despite the impressive facilities on offer elsewhere, was a ‘pretty easy’ one at the time.
“When I left school after my GCSEs, I had offers from all three,” Lampard Jr remembers. “It was pretty easy for me to choose West Ham because it had been my club growing up.
“My dad had played for them. I was a West Ham fan as a kid.”
Lampard loved his time alongside Julian Dicks at Upton Park
While many youngsters would shy away from a dressing room full of battle-scarred pros and West Ham warriors, a teenage Frank Lampard relished being in Julian Dicks’ shadow, even if that meant scraping every last morsel of mud off the legendary captain’s boots.
“[Dicks] used to hammer you! He used to absolutely give it to you!” Lampard laughs.
“He used to wear blades. They were like the first blades as we know them now, they were pretty new. It was a bit out there, and ‘Dixie’ wore blades. Mud would get stuck right in the blades and he would just throw them at you! ‘Clean them again’.
“That sounds bullish, but it was Dixie.
“I loved him and respected him as a West Ham fan. This bloke was like my king at the time! He would throw [the boots] at you and you would clean them again. Come Christmas, it was bonus time and they would give you a little tip at the end of the year. Dixie was really generous, so it was worth it.
“He was great with me as well. It was part of the growing up period and the respect. [I thought], ‘I want to be Julian Dicks or anything like him’. So, cleaning his boots, no problem. When I look back, magical moments, getting to touch Dixie’s boots when I was an academy player.”
Dicks, though, was a lot more than his ‘hardman’ persona.
“Unreal. A really good footballer. He was much better than [people think],” Lampard adds. “He was a tough man and obviously got his foot in, but he could play.
“He used to have that great [move] as a left-back where he would go to play it down the line and then just chop inside and take it into the middle of the pitch.”
