If Chelsea sack Frank Lampard now it's a bad look on the Chelsea board.

Frank was hired as part of a long-term plan which was going to see a massive clear-out of deadwood, several academy players being made part of the first-team squad and a change to an entertaining...

attacking style of play while also aiming to bring in some of the best young players in the world for LONG-TERM success. The goal of this project was to finish in the top 4 twice and then compete for the big trophies in the 3rd season(2021/22).

We are now 50% into the 3 year plan and Frank took Chelsea to the top 4 in his first season, took them past the group-stages in the CL and even took them to an FA Cup final. He got rid of players like David Luíz, Davide Zappacosta, Danny Drinkwater, Victor Moses, Gonzalo Higuaín

and Álvaro Mòrata while integrating the likes of Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, Reece James, Billy Gilmour and new signing Christian Pulisic while also convincing Callum Hudson-Odoi that this was the place to be. He also had this young team finishing as the 3rd highest...

scorers in the country and was one of the most entertaining teams in England to watch.

Then came the summer window and it was time for another big clear-out and a first opportunity to sign some big talents from other clubs.

Out went the likes of Ross Barkley, Willian...

Pedro and Michy Batshuayi while he was also planning on offloading the likes of Antonio Rüdiger, Marcos Alonso, Emerson and Jorginho(which didn't happen because of Covid-19).

In came some really big talents such as Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, Hakim Ziyech, Ben Chilwell...

Thiago Silva and Édouard Mendy. Most of those players joined this club BECAUSE of this exciting project and the fact that Frank was in charge of it. For those who have seen Frank speak it will come as no surprise that he played a big part in negotiations to convince these...

players to come to Chelsea ahead of everyone else. All of these players were #1 targets and we succeeded in getting them all. If it wasn't for the struggles of offloading players like Jorginho and Rüdiger, we would have seen the arrival of the last #1 target as well, Declan Rice.

So far this season, clear tactical improvement has been seen by Chelsea in defence and in set-piece situations in comparison to last season. Yet again, Frank took Chelsea past the group-stages in the CL, this time very convincingly to the point where neutrals...

were starting to talk about Chelsea as an outsider to win the whole thing.

17 games into the season, Chelsea sit 3 points(currently) of their pre-set goal of qualifying for the CL for a second consecutive season under Frank. The FA Cup has yet to begin.

Granted, some of the attacking play we have seen this season has been very worrying. However, some context will help. Frank has had a lot of new players to work with this season, in attacking positions in particular, and it takes time to build relationships between players...

and in case you haven't noticed, time on the training ground is difficult if not impossible to come across this season. There's also the fact of no pre-season(about 2 weeks worth and 1 game, most of which without most of the new signings).

In addition to that it's pretty clear that the board has set some "unfair" demands on Frank that they quite frankly should not have done. Such as demanding the likes of Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech and Kai Havertz to feature in every game simply just because...

they were expensive acquisitions to them. This has led Frank to be forced to play players out of form over players in form(such as Tammy and Callum) and also to play Pulisic on the right-wing to acommodate Werner on the LW. All of these things makes it all the more...

logical why Chelsea's attacking play hasn't always been blossoming. Even still, it's easy to forget that after 12 games(5 games ago) Chelsea were the highest scorers in the PL and they did score 14 goals in the CL group stage(2.3 p/g).

It's clear to everyone that Chelsea are on some really poor form. However, this has happened to every team in the in the history of time. Should they end a long-term project that had so much promise just a month ago because of 6 games worth of bad form?

There is still a lot to be done in this project and Lampard deserves all 3 years of it(granted it doesn't keep going as bad as it has these last 6 games for the next month or two). If he is the right man to take us to the next level AFTER 3 years is a matter for that time...

but until then there is still A LOT more deadwood to clear out(Kepa, Alonso, Emerson, Rüdiger, Christensen, Jorginho, Kovačić) and plenty more academy graduates to be integrated into the first team(Anjorin, Livramento, Guehi, Maatsen, Gallagher etc).

And last but not least, there are still a lot more TOP talents to be signed and convinced to come here. Coveted talents such as Erling Haaland, Declan Rice, José Gimenez and Gigio Donnarumma(reported targets so far).

Lampard's skill of convincing players is a rare skill...

among managers and should not be taken for granted.

They give Frank the 3 years that they initially planned to, they will have a young core full of top class talents in a squad that will likely challenge for the PL and CL for the best part of a decade...

about half of which, will have come through our own ranks bleeding blue and all the sins of the past managers(deadwood signings) will be cleared out. IF it's decided that Frank isn't the right manager to take us to the next level, he will leave the new manager this squad.

A squad full of players that can play in almost any attacking system, any formations and any positons. A squad used to playing attacking football.

If they remove him now, who is to say that our academy players won't be cast aside? That the likes of Anjorin and Guehi won't...

be given their chance? That players like Alonso, Rüdiger, Christensen, Jorginho etc. won't be given a new lifeline? That a pragmatic like Allagri isn't brought in who will need to rebuild the whole team from scratch for his own defensive values?

The grass isn't always greener and this plan was put in motion for a reason and if they end it now it would all have been for nothing and it will just go back to what they were trying to get away from in the first place.

It's time the Chelsea board showed some maturity.