Frank Lampard, former two-time England Player of the Year, was once again booed by the Lions’ faithful following England’s 3-0 victory over Estonia at Wembley on Saturday. Coming on as a 70th-minute substitute for Michael Owen, Lampard was unmistakably jeered onto the pitch. How, asks the Independent’s Jason Burt, has the Chelsea midfielder fallen so rapidly from grace in the eyes of England’s supporters? With David Beckham at least the grudge was based on an untimely sending off at the World Cup. With Lampard, it’s really anybody’s guess.
First and foremost, Burt, like Lampard’s England teammates and Coach Steve McClaren, admits that the booing is unwarranted. Lampard, he says, “Whatever his faults, his perceived arrogance and self-regard, is one of the hardest-working and most dedicated of footballers.” Indeed, just two years ago, English fans voted him the national team player of the year for the second year running. Also in 2005, he finished runner-up to the FIFA World Player of the Year award and grabbed his second successive Premier League title with Chelsea. Even now, Lampard continues to lead by example at Stamford Bridge, recording his highest-ever goals tally for the club last season. So how did he draw the fans’ ire?
Burt says it simply comes down to poor form when playing for his country and a bad attitude when he’s not playing. After five mediocre performances at the World Cup last year, and a poor start to Euro 2008 qualifying, fans started to identify Lampard as “the root of the problem.” The fact that England’s won three tough qualifiers in a row without him hasn’t been lost on the fans, either.