Frank Lampard driven to return to football after watching old rivals in Premier League

Frank Lampard opens up on how he handled watching football rather than being involved

Frank Lampard admits he’s been frustrated sitting on the sidelines, watching old sparring partners like Steven Gerrard and Patrick Vieira battling it out as managers in the Premier League.

He’s been out of work since getting sacked by Chelsea just over a year ago.

For the most part, Lampard says he’s been content at home; enjoying valuable family time and getting some perspective on the stressful, often unforgiving life of a top-flight manager.

He told ITV News: “You’ll have to ask my wife, she'll give you a better reference and tell you how I was.

“I love football, it’s my life, so I never stayed too much detached from the game but I certainly got some perspective in terms of spending time with my family and children and things that sometimes in the cutthroat world of management - in terms of time and what you have to give to it - you don't have, so I got perspective in that case, so it didn't give me too much frustration.”

But he admits there were times when he was desperate to get back, especially when he was watching former rivals pacing the touchline.

Watching old rivals spurred Frank Lampard on

“Probably the only time I got anywhere near frustrated was watching games, seeing the passion, seeing people I used to go up against and things like that,” he said.

“And [I have] huge respect for managers like Steven Gerrard and Patrick Vieira and players and managers in the Premier League because I know the strains of the job as much as the good side of the job.”

He says Everton seems the right fit for him because of the club’s ambition and pride. He’s keen to give the fans at Goodison Park something to shout about.

“We’re in the Premier League, we want to stay there, that’s always the baseline when you consider the position we're in at the moment,” he said.

“But I want to actually put an imprint on this team where it can look like a team like I want my team to look and look like a team that the Everton fans are proud of and get excited to come and watch.”