Frank Lampard has framed Coventry City\u2019s return to the top flight as a triumph that comes \u201cvery, very close\u201d to the high of his 2012 Champions League success with Chelsea, which he still calls \u201cthe best night\u201d of his life. After 25 years away from the summit of the English pyramid, Coventry became the first second-tier club to confirm their involvement in the 2026\u201327 Premier League campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came into a bit of an unknown 15 or so months ago when we arrived in a people carrier,\u201d Lampard reflected on the modest beginning to a rapid recovery. \u201cWe\u2019ve fallen in love and this is right up there with what I have achieved.\u201d The promotion was effectively secured a week before the 1\u20131 draw with Blackburn that rubber-stamped the result.<\/p>\n
Lampard admitted he was taken aback by his own reaction at full time. \u201cI\u2019m more emotional than I thought I would be and the final whistle just caught me,\u201d he said. \u201cIt just dawned on me then what this achievement means to our fans. <\/p>\n
\u201cWinning the Champions League with Chelsea was the best night of my life, but this comes very, very close.\u201d<\/p>\n
He allowed the squad \u201ca bit of a party\u201d after a goalless stalemate with already-relegated Sheffield Wednesday, only to find training standards had dropped the following week and, by his own admission, he had \u201cthe hump\u201d with the brief lapse. Overall, Lampard\u2019s tenure has been characterised by a close relationship with the squad and a shared focus on consistency.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople just see him as a gaffer because they don\u2019t know him as a person but he\u2019s more than just a gaffer,” Jack Rudoni told BBC Sport . “He has a great relationship with everyone\u2014he\u2019s a good person as well.<\/p>\n
“You can come to him with anything and he will sit there and talk to you and give you advice whether it\u2019s football or not. There\u2019s no-one better to learn from\u2014he\u2019s been brilliant with me on and off the pitch.<\/p>\n
“He and I have a good relationship, and we talk closely. He\u2019s always helping me with little bits and pieces, timing of runs, areas to get into, even down to shooting techniques and stuff we spoke about.<\/p>\n
“He\u2019s been brilliant, and it\u2019s great to have someone of that quality that can guide me and give me tips, and I\u2019m just happy it\u2019s worked out for me on the pitch, which then kind of repays him working with me with the results.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rudoni has seven goals from midfield. U.S. men\u2019s national team striker Haji Wright leads the club with 16 league goals and there are seven players with seven or more this season; no other Championship team has more than four. Coventry have combined careful play through the thirds with rapid transitions, exploiting errors or choosing moments to press. Lampard\u2019s promotion completes his first successful return to England\u2019s top flight after previous playoff disappointments and a 2020 FA Cup final with Chelsea, when they were beaten by Arsenal in front of an empty Wembley Stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lampard says Coventry promotion is almost as satisfying as his 2012 Champions League night to fans<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12202,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1249,1589],"tags":[1047],"class_list":["post-12203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-championship","category-coventry-city","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}