Robins had almost single-handedly revived the club from their darkest days in League Two, earning two promotions and reaching the Championship play-off final in 2023, where Coventry lost to Luton at Wembley. He had come so close, giving blood, sweat and tears over seven years, and surely it was his right to take the final step. But Coventry’s new owner, the businessman Doug King, felt the dressing room needed a new voice and he made a bold, risky decision.

Perhaps he also sensed a commercial opportunity in appointing one of the world’s most famous footballers as manager. On his first day at the club, Lampard gathered everyone in the gym – players, staff, chefs, cleaners – and told them to start believing the sky is the limit for Coventry. The club has not looked back, and 18 months later they are heading back to the Premier League.

One staff member told The Independent Lampard’s “relentless drive” has been at the heart of Coventry’s promotion season. His determination was a trait of his playing career and the stories of him staying behind as a young player to work on his speed and finishing are well worn. So perhaps it is no surprise that the word “standards” is used repeatedly by people at the club to describe his impact.

Lampard salutes the Coventry fans after confirming promotion at Ewood Park (Getty)Few have had a better view of Lampard’s impact than Harry Colledge, a fifth-generation Coventry fan who swapped his season ticket for a payslip when he started working in the club’s kit department three years ago, which he now runs. “We are in the dressing room at half-time and full-time,” Colledge says. “He motivates me!

He makes me want to do a few laps. He’s brought a winning mentality to the club.“He does talk a lot about his experience and how it relates to situations in-game for us, and where things can change. And just the way he views a game of football is incredible, especially to someone who’s obviously not played the game.

Working in this environment, it makes someone who’s not played the game feel like you don’t know much about football.”Does Lampard ever need to scream and shout to get his point across? “I don’t think there’s been many occasions when he has,” says Colledge. “He is quite a calm character, but he’s very direct and to the point.”Colledge lays out kit each morning for Lampard, who commutes up the M1 from his home in London and often stays the night in the city.

Lampard is hands-on in training and will often be directing and marshalling his players on the grass, alongside assistant Joe Edwards. Harry Colledge leads the club's kit department (Coventry City)One of Lampard’s most significant achievements has been to unlock the potential of key players, such as left-back Jay Da Silva and midfielder Jack Rudoni, who shows shades of Lampard in the way he arrives by stealth in the final third. The manager has got the best out of striker Haji Wright, too, who has stood up in certain moments, like his hat-trick against promotion rivals Middlesbrough last month.Lampard has been supported by the owner, King, who brought the club’s training ground into the 21st century with a much-needed redevelopment in 2024.

Recruitment has been more hit than miss, particularly in goalkeeper Carl Rushworth, signed on loan from Brighton last summer, and midfielder Frank Onyeka, who signed on loan from Brentford in January to inject quality at a crucial moment in the season when Coventry went off the boil.But the most important signing has been Matt Grimes, the captain, who arrived from Swansea for £3.5m in January 2025. Lampard has trusted Grimes as his de facto manager on the pitch and off it, giving him freedom to lead with the help of senior players. There are parallels with Lampard’s own career when he and John Terry ran the Chelsea dressing room.

“Grimsey had been a great captain,” says Colledge. “He’s a perfect figure for the dressing room, a true leader who can have the crack with the lads too.” Jack Rudoni and Haji Wright have been important figures in the club's promotion season (Getty)A lesser known signing is Claire-Marie Roberts, a former swimmer and footballer who joined Coventry as performance director several months before Lampard arrived. Roberts is a chartered psychologist and she is credited inside the club for developing a high-class approach to a raft of areas including injury prevention, recovery and recruitment.Roberts works closely with the sports science department and Lampard’s experienced first-team coach Chris Jones, who has served Chelsea managers Jose Mourinho, Anoto