Frank Lampard and football's most unexpected managerial returns ⏮️ | OneFootball

In what must be considered the most surprising football news of the week, Frank Lampard has been re-appointed Chelsea manager on an interim basis until the end of the season.

Lampard is far from the only manager to have made a surprise return to a former club. Here are some of the best examples of managers who ignored the age old advice that “you should never go back”.

José Mourinho – Chelsea

Chelsea have form for taking a second bite of the cherry when it comes to managers.

Mourinho was originally hired after winning the Champions League with Porto in 2004, and the self-proclaimed “Special One” delivered the club’s first top-flight title in 50 years in his first season in charge.

More trophies followed, but a poor start to the 2007/08 season saw Roman Abramovich give José his marching orders.

It wasn’t the end of his Chelsea story, however, and in 2013 he was brought back to Stamford Bridge.

Another Premier League title followed in his second season but things quickly went toxic in his third year and he was sent packing again after nine defeats from the club’s first 16 matches of the campaign.

Did it work? Though his second spell did yield a title, the way it ended has somewhat damaged his legacy in west London, so it’s difficult to say.

Zinedine Zidane – Real Madrid

Zidane is possibly the only example on this list where his initial departure was more shocking than his return.

The Frenchman played for Real Madrid and coached the club’s Castilla team before taking over first-team matters in January 2016 following Rafael Benítez’s sacking.

Three months later he guided Los Blancos to a historic 11th Champions League triumph, before lifting the trophy again in 2017 and 2018.

However, just five days after winning the Champions League for a third successive season, Zidane stunned the world by resigning as Madrid manager, citing a “need for change” as the reason behind his shock decision.

He would soon be back. After Julen Lopetegui’s disastrously short spell in charge and Santiago Solari’s sacking, Zidane was rehired in March 2019.

The LaLiga title was clinched in the 2019/20 season, but Zizou was unable to oversee another Champions League triumph, and he said adieu again in the summer of 2021 following a trophyless campaign.

Did it work? Madrid were in a desperate spot (by their standards) when Zidane returned and he restored belief to the club, but his stock could not have been higher when he left the first time, and perhaps he should have left it that way.

Kenny Dalglish – Liverpool

They call him The King at Anfield and Dalglish will always be a Liverpool legend for his time as a player at the club and his first spell as manager.

But the less said about his second spell, the better.

Between 1985 and 1991, the Scotsman delivered three league titles, two FA Cups and the League Cup, not to mention the role he played as the club’s figurehead during the deeply traumatic Hillsborough disaster in 1989.

In January 2011, Liverpool were in the market for a new manager after Roy Hodgson had been sacked and Dalglish heeded the call, signing a three-year contract.

For a short time, his legendary status brought the good vibes back to the club and he did win another League Cup, but an eighth-placed finish in the 2011/12 season saw him put out to pasture.

Did it work? Absolutely not, but Liverpool fans will tell you that having Dalglish in charge was at least much preferable to his predecessor.

Harry Redknapp – Portsmouth

There aren’t many managers in history who have left a club to join their fiercest rivals, only to swiftly return with their tail between their legs, but Harry Redknapp did exactly that.

Redknapp had previously guided Pompey to promotion to the Premier League and kept them in the top-flight the following season, but a falling out with the club’s owner saw him resign in November 2004.

Just a few weeks later he took a job down the road at Southampton, infuriating Portsmouth’s fans, some of whom printed T-shirts calling him “Judas” and telling him to “Rot in Hell”.

But Southampton’s attempt to rile their rivals would backfire spectacularly when they were relegated from the Premier League under Redknapp at the end of the 2004/05 season.

And then, just months into the new season, he made another incredible heel turn when he resigned as Saints boss to return to Portsmouth.

Redknapp saved Pompey from relegation and went on to win the FA Cup in 2008 – an achievement which later earned him the Freedom of the City of Portsmouth. He will probably never be welcome in Southampton again, however.

Did it work? Redknapp surely didn’t get Southampton relegated on purpose but it went a long way toward repairing the damage caused by his departure from Portsmouth, and all was definitely forgiven and forgotten during his hugely successful second spell.

Jupp Heynckes – Bayern Munich

Heynckes has had so many spells in charge of Bayern that we half-expected him to be reinstalled as manager following Julian Nagelsmann’s recent shock sacking.

A former player for Borussia Mönchengladbach and Hannover, Heynckes initially coached Bayern between 1987 and 1991, during which time he led the club to back-to-back Bundesliga titles.

The Bavarian giants’ general manager Uli Hoeneß later described his decision to sack Heynckes as the “biggest mistake” of his career, but amends were finally made in 2009 when Heynckes was tempted out of retirement to manage the club on a caretaker basis after Jürgen Klinsmann’s sacking.

A strong finish to the 2008/09 season saw him offered a permanent job by Bayer Leverkusen, which he duly accepted, but in 2011 he returned to Bayern for a third spell in charge, taking over from Louis van Gaal.

The 66-year-old was the oldest coach in the Bundesliga when he was reappointed but his first season back at the club didn’t go to plan, as Bayern were pipped to both the Bundesliga title and the DFB Pokal by Borussia Dortmund, before losing to Chelsea on penalties in the 2012 Champions League final.

Midway through the following season, Bayern announced they had agreed to appoint Pep Guardiola in the summer of 2013 and Heynckes would be stepping aside. Heynckes responded to this news by winning the Bundesliga title in record breaking fashion and beating Jürgen Klopp’s Dortmund in the Champions League final, before completing the treble with victory over Stuttgart in the DFB Pokal final.

It looked like that was going to be the glorious end to his coaching career, but in October 2017 he was tempted out of retirement to coach Bayern for a fourth time following Carlo Ancelotti’s dismissal.

His fourth spell at the club yielded one more Bundesliga title before he bowed out gracefully at the end of the 2017/18 season, despite Hoeneß’s attempts to convince him to stay on.

Did it work? Undoubtedly. Heynckes has come to Bayern’s rescue and delivered silverware more times than the club probably deserved. He’s 77-years-old now but we really wouldn’t put a fifth spell past him.

David Moyes – West Ham

What a strange managerial career Moyes has had.

After a steadily successful 11-year term at Everton, the Scot was handpicked by the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson to succeed him at Manchester United, before he was sacked just seven months later.

Unsuccessful stints at Real Sociedad and Sunderland followed, before he was handed a six-month deal and tasked with saving West Ham from relegation in November 2017.

It was mission accomplished as Moyes kept the Hammers in the Premier League, but the football was uninspiring and his contract was not extended, with the club instead plumping for the more attractive appointment of Manuel Pellegrini.

However, Pellegrini was unable to fulfil his remit of getting the Hammers into Europe and when he was sacked in December 2019, the club went back to Moyes.

Moyes attracted derision when after being re-appointed but his critics were made to eat their words when he not only avoided relegation again, but guided West Ham to 19 wins and qualification for the Europa League in the 2020/21 season, before following it up with a seventh-placed finish in 2021/22.

They don’t call him the “Moyesiah” for nothing.

Did it work? Yes and no. The Hammers have enjoyed some great times in Europe on Moyes’s watch, but at the time of writing they are back where he started in relegation danger, and he might not have a job for very much longer.