Coventry City: Frank Lampard may have Wayne Rooney, Birmingham City fear | OneFootball

Frank Lampard could potentially take over at Coventry City, but he may well have fears of replicating Wayne Rooney's Birmingham City disaster

Frank Lampard is being linked with a return to football management with Coventry City, where he would be replacing long-serving boss Mark Robins in a succession plan which may just jolt the nerves with Wayne Rooney's recent history in mind.

According to a recent report published by The Mirror, the former Chelsea, Everton and Derby County boss is set to replace Robins, who was relieved of his duties on Thursday morning by Sky Blues owner Doug King, but other reports, such as from the Daily Mail's Tom Collomosse, claim that no decision has been made yet, although the ex-England international would be in the frame if he was interested.

The decision to part ways with Robins following more than seven years of stellar service has received significant backlash across the last few days, with both Coventry and neutral supporters coming together to lament King for making what appears, from the outside looking in, an extremely harsh judgement call.

Robins returned to the West Midlands for a second spell in 2017 and guided the Sky Blues all the way from the depths of League Two to one penalty-kick away from an improbable promotion to the Premier League, which they were denied of by Luton Town in 2023's Championship play-off final.

However, they were able to grace the hallowed Wembley turf - and feel a similar sense of heartbreak - less than twelve months later through a remarkable FA Cup run last season, going all the way to the semi-finals, where they miraculously overturned a three-goal deficit to force Manchester United to spot kicks.

But unfortunately for Robins, who had been the EFL's longest-serving manager prior to his dismissal, the attainment of fresh and monumental milestones subsequently amplified the pressure, demand and expectation to deliver a ticket back to the promised land.

Promotion was evidently the objective this term as King backed the Sky Blues legend in the transfer market, but he was unable to get quite the same tune of out of his side and was ultimately sacked following a 2-1 defeat to Derby County, leaving Coventry 17th in the Championship.

Less than a week on, there are plenty of names that have already been touted with the vacancy at the CBS Arena, and Lampard - if he is the one to end up in the job - has big shoes to fill.

The lure of the job at Coventry is undeniable, especially given Lampard himself has been out of work for more than a year following a brief caretaker return to Chelsea at the back-end of the 2022/23 season, however, the natural cycle of replacing Robins brings immense pressure to deliver.

King will be feeling that for sure and, quite possibly, as will Lampard too if he is appointed. His nerves, then, won't be helped by looking at how Wayne Rooney fared in fundamentally similar circumstances in the previous campaign.

Wayne Rooney proved a disastrous replacement for John Eustace at Birmingham City

If appointed, Lampard will surely be fighting tooth and nail to avoid emulating Wayne Rooney's brief and disastrous spell at Birmingham City, whom he joined last October after Tom Wagner harshly yielded the axe to John Eustace.

Blues were all the way up in sixth place in the Championship at the time of Eustace's sacking, and naturally, the dismissal of Eustace went down horrifically with supporters and pundits alike, who quickly got on Rooney's back when he failed to hit the ground running at St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park.

It turned sour very quickly for Rooney as he was unable to get the team going and inspire anything like the same success enjoyed by Eustace, with the decision looking more and more regrettable each week.

The former Man United star earned just one point from his first five games in charge and never looked capable of recovering from a slow start, eventually receiving his marching orders after winning twice in fifteen matches with Blues sat in 20th position.

Birmingham were later relegated to League One for the first time in more than 30 years and while they're still well on-course to achieve their lofty ambitions under Wagner and co, relegation put a notable dent in the three-year Premier League plan and the decision to sack Eustace for Rooney was a big part of why they went down.

Frank Lampard will fear Wayne Rooney, Birmingham City repeat at Coventry City if appointed

While Rooney's failure at Birmingham is by no means a determinant of how Lampard could potentially fare up the road at Coventry, there are a few eerie parallels which may just play on the mind of the 106-cap ex-England international.

Lampard, like Rooney of course, enjoyed a scintillating playing career for both club and country, becoming one of the defining players of his generation and with that, bringing stellar pedigree into his managerial ventures. Naturally, the former Chelsea midfield ace's name carries significant weight.

They both enjoyed relative success in the respective contexts at Derby; Lampard took them to the play-off final while Rooney still had the Rams competitive despite facing a 21-point deduction, which ultimately saw them relegated from the Championship.

But Rooney's stock had just fallen somewhat by the time he returned to English football from DC United by taking the job at Birmingham, and it's hard to deny that Lampard's managerial career hasn't gone exactly as planned either.

Lampard's arrival at Chelsea in 2019 after taking Derby to within 90 minutes of the Premier League was hotly-anticipated, and while he managed to guide the side he starred for as a player to a fourth-placed finish in his first season, he was never quite capable of inspiring an expensively-assembled squad the following term and was sacked in January.

He then went to Everton, where he struggled before returning to Chelsea for a short and unsuccessful spell at caretaker manager, and now appears set to return to the world of management after more than a year out.

Lampard is going straight into the deep end too if he arrives at Coventry, and you imagine that he will have to hit the ground running extremely quickly to win over the Sky Blues faithful.

He'll be very much hoping to embrace the notorious 'new manager bounce', and a few straight victories could promise to afford him buy-in with the supporters.

However, anything but an instant impact is sure to deliver the opposite reaction and that can often prove immensely hard to recover from, particularly given the pressure of replacing a manager as adored as Robins was.

Though incomparable in terms of status, Eustace was also very popular with supporters at Birmingham and they simply couldn't afford Rooney the luxury of time and patience considering who he was brought into replace. It'll be similar for Lampard, no doubt, and he'll be fearing anything but an electrifying start to life with Coventry should he be handed the job.