Frank Lampard's first stint as Chelsea manager came to an end in the way that so many tend to at Stamford Bridge. The club legend was failing to blend and balance his squad, performances had dropped off, the slide down the table was in full flow and tactical issues were being picked apart.
His standing with the fans never changed. They weren't there to show the true feelings but given how Jose Mourinho was supported in 2015 when his position as boss became untenable it's not unreasonable to think he would have kept the support of those that watched.
Without fans in stadiums to watch and give backlash to decisions it was easier to remove him from his post. Thomas Tuchel's first game in charge against Wolves wouldn't have been a happy place had there been people witnessing it live from SW6. As it happens that was the start of something else special.
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Now Lampard is back, here to help out at a time of need after the latest Chelsea boss goes through something that he himself has seen first hand as a player and coach. Graham Potter looked like a man that couldn't control the madness at Chelsea, very few can - at least not for long - and the fans had already made their point clear.
The return of Lampard offers a semblance of something fun once more for the Stamford Bridge faithful and Lampard has already analysed his downfall in 2021, ready to move on and correct the past mistakes. "It felt like a huge success with reflection, getting in the top four in year one but when I was in the job I was thinking 'we must make top for we cannot miss out' having been so used to that as a player and now it's different," he said of his first season in charge on the High Performance Podcast back in September.
"I didn't see that and so I probably became a little bit on top of myself and then in the second year certainly one of the biggest regrets I have is the last period at Chelsea where we came into, out of nowhere we were second in the league and came into a short-run of defeats to leave us ninth, the way it went in the league and with four defeats, bang, you're gone."
In the December the Blues topped the league and six weeks later they had moved on from Lampard after losses to Wolves, a struggling Arsenal, Manchester City and Leicester. The direction and decisions from Lampard gained more attention than before, his choices were scrutinised and previously exiled senior players were welcomed back in a muddled state of affairs.
Even for a club legend, it appeared like a man that was trying desperately to please too many people and do too much at once. It's similar for Potter. Tasked with a massively bloated squad, underperforming players throughout and issues off the field, there was just too much to do and not enough hours to do it in.
"I was striving to solve 100 problems and now as I come away I'm saying 'don't get in that position again, Frank, you've got a trust in yourself in those moments,' " he added. "And probably I felt what was coming, I felt the pressure and the thunderbolt defeat. Two thunderbolt defeats is a double thunderbolt, it's not good news at Chelsea and I probably started to second guess that.
"I think that's just experience in life and this job and I'll probably experienced it in in a pretty cutthroat manor, it felt at the time but that's what it is. I went into Chelsea with an absolute understanding of what it was, it is a club that I love."
Lampard is back now without the same pressures, he is likely to be watching another manager in the dugout next season regardless of how successful he is in the next nine league games and potential Champions League ties. It gives him freedom to correct things that were done wrong before and also to bring the positive feeling back to the ground where his name is still sung to this day.
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