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| Captain Frank and a Big Shiny Trophy |
They say that no player is ever bigger than the club - and although true in principle, there are that come oh so close. There are players that simply are the club. Thirteen years ago, no one expected a West Ham supporter from the East End to earn his £11M price tag let alone become arguably the greatest player the club has ever seen.
There are genuinely not words that can really sum up either Frank Lampard’s career, or more importantly what he’s meant to Chelsea supporters for well over a decade. But we’ll give it a go and try to not short out my laptop from the copious amounts of tears falling from my face. Er, I mean, *cough* I think something’s in my eye.
Living abroad, attending an actual Chelsea match was an investment. Like a small car. I’ve rectified that and could actually walk to the ground right now -- maybe lay some flowers at Gate 15 in remembrance ... I digress. Anyways, it was ages before I finally saved enough pennies and was able to get to Stamford Bridge. It happened to be that John Terry was injured while I was over, so Frank Lampard captained the first match I got to see in the flesh. (Behave) And has gone on to captain Chelsea in back to back European championships. Ok, one European Championship (something I never thought I’d see) and one Thursday Night Cup.
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| Scoring the PL winner at Bolton |
I had more than enough time to have settled into a serious appreciation for the man -- some may have called it a slightly unhealthy obsession. You say potato, I say ... Anyways, it was completely fitting that Frank Lampard led the team to vic ... well, in this case a bit of an error prone draw. But I was thrilled to pieces anyways. Frank Lampard was no longer news paper articles, highlights on telly, eventually full games on telly (*cough* naughty internet streams) he was actually there right in front of me as I sat there in my Lampard replica top.*
I also had the unfortunate timing of being here when we lost Pat Lampard. A fixture in East Upper. I had tickets in the front row close to the corner where the box office told me “you’ll be close enough to touch Frank Lampard”. *stares* He didn’t know what he’d done! I’d got to the ground early *** and patiently waited for the teams to come out only for it to be announced that Lampard had to leave due to an emergency. Obviously I’d assumed he’d got wind that there may be a fangirl looking forward to disrupting at least one of his corners.
When Lampard very publicly endured the loss of his mother, it had a very unifying effect on all of us (at least Chelsea and not any low life to use it as ‘banter’). Each and everyone of us who’s lost someone that we were that close to felt what he was going through. I’d lost the greatest influence on my life not long before that and will always take with me the image of him being picked up after scoring that penalty by Drogba and Carvalho in the Champions League. The mental fortitude for him to take a penalty at that time says more about him as a man than anyone ever could.
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| Pat |
A year later I was going to Wembley for Chelsea’s FA Cup win over Everton. And thanks to some fantastic people I consider family, I carried that massive Super Frankie Lampard banner all the way from Stamford Bridge to Wembley. I could not have been prouder and my arms could not have been sorer. He’s that athlete - not me. I didn’t have a ticket, I just believed I could get one. (Please note that this does not always work). But I managed to finally get into the ground and was seated a) below the banner and b) right where Lampard scored the winning goal from. Obviously not right where he scored from for those of your persnickety pedants.
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| Lampard & the happiest girl in the world |
Naturally when I put in my time behind the bar, it was at the very one owned by Lampard + Lampard Sr. To my great disappointment, he doesn’t spend the quality time at the pub that he once did in his younger days so I had to make due mostly with Frank Sr. Hoping a good word would be put in for his favourite barmaid. Weeks went by without sign of him. But then I had some fantastic friends over for an embarrassing loss to Liverpool. Thankfully they needed some cheering up and wanted to see where I worked. As we walked in the door we noticed someone at the end of the bar who also needed a pint and cheering up ...
... this of course now turns into a fantastic day / most embarrassing moment of my own life. I’ll save some of the details for the people there and a few of the punters who thought the whole thing was hilarious (and told me months later). But after standing near Lampard for ages tittering away like a school girl (which is allowed because I am a girl), my boss thought he’d do me a solid. After realising I wasn’t going to make the first move he thought he’d get Frank’s attention - point at me and say ‘see that girl, she loves you and works here ... and loves, can you talk to her?” Brilliant. I was 50 shades of red.
They say never meet your heroes - but I’m so glad I did. I can say with authority that Frank Lampard is one of the most genuine and loveliest men I’ve ever had the chance to meet. And it has been an absolute privilege embarrassing myself as a Frank Lampard fan girl. Frank Lampard is Chelsea.
jb x
*For the record, I don’t wear those to games anymore. It’s ‘not cool’
** I do still wear them around my flat and the occasional trip to the office -- safe from the eye of judgement
*** I definitely don’t do that anymore
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