Leeds United fans will remember Frank Lampard for his time in charge of Derby County. The former Premier League midfielder went head-to-head with Marcelo Bielsa in the 2019 Championship play-offs.
That year saw Derby come back from a 1-0 deficit in the first leg of the semi-final, to win the tie 4-2 on aggregate. It was around the time the ‘Spygate’ scandal had dominated the headlines.
The Whites were slapped with a £200,000 fine for watching the Rams from a vantage point outside their training ground, after Marcelo Bielsa admitted what had happened in front of the media.
Leeds fans coined a chant for the former England midfielder in the first leg, but Lampard had the last laugh as his team won to head to the Championship playoff final.
Frank Lampard almost ended up at Leeds United
Leeds United fans and Frank Lampard have since had an uneasy relationship. Any time the former Chelsea boss faces the West Yorkshire side, he is met with boos. But things could have turned out differently years ago.
According to David O’Leary, Leeds were in the hunt to sign Lampard before he made his big move to Chelsea in 2001. The former Whites boss thinks it is one of the club’s biggest missed opportunities in a long time.
“We tried to get Lampard, met Frank, but just top guy, top fella, chose well – he went to Chelsea instead. Rio was a great influence caressing along as well. Remember van Bommel. He was interested because he was young, he’d seen a young, vibrant team,” O’Leary said on The Overlap.
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Club have improved when it comes to recruitment
Leeds also had big misses in recent years; the Whites failed to sign Josko Gvardiol and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. But in recent years, the 49ers have done well when it comes to recruitment. But they have hit on signings like Patrick Bamford and Raphinha.
This past season alone, the club signed players who came straight into the first team. Jaka Bijol, Gabriel Gudmundsson, Anton Stach and Dominic Calvert-Lewin have all been a huge part of this season.
Now fans will be hoping that this summer’s window will be better than what the club did after 2020. Marcelo Bielsa was not properly backed and that lead to the team returning to the Championship.
The team needs quality in areas and improvement on some of the starters ahead of next season, where things will be much more difficult in the league.
