At Derby, he was appointed in summer 2018. The club had a net zero transfer spend in the only season he was there. The season prior they had made an £8m surplus on transfers and a £1m surplus the year prior. Derby's £30m spree was in 2015 under Paul Clement and many of his signings had gone before Lampard arrived.
Lampard attracted Mason Mount and Harry Wilson to the club. No Lampard, no chance those players would have gone. Those two players were everything at Derby, their only real quality.
Norwich and Sheff Utd were comfortably promoted. Leeds, West Brom and Villa were the other sides in the play offs.
Norwich wage bill was £54m, Sheff Utd £41m, Leeds was £46m, West Brom £47m and Aston Villa is so high it is omitted from accounts. Middlesbrough was £40m. Derby's wage bill had been £40m the season before, but there are no published accounts since then in public domain. Derby did not have a wage advantage over the other clubs in the promotion race.
Norwich lost £39m, Sheff Utd lost £21m, Leeds lost £21m, West Brom lost £7m and Aston Villa a jaw dropping £112m. Middlesbrough had a surplus of £2m.
FFP is a completely different thing as we know with lots of puts and takes, but it is unmistakably clear that Aston Villa were in severe breach the season they beat Derby in the play off final to go up.
The facts are that Lampard in his first managerial role did very well to get Derby into the play offs and beat Leeds in the two legged play off. They lost narrowly at Wembley to Villa, but at least had a go.
He was offered Chelsea before his time, but understandably took it on. A transfer embargo prevented him spending, but he brought through many of the young players, qualifying for Champions League and making the FA Cup Final. That summer they signed Ziyech, Havertz, Chilwell, Mendy and Werner. Not too shabby. He strongly wanted Rice and was blocked. Tuchel did win the Champions League but also finished no higher than Lampard had done. Lampard did not fail at Chelsea at all.
So he is bruised, out of football for a year and the Everton job comes up. It is not a bad job and on the face of it the squad should be good enough to stay up, there is a new ground to look forward to and owners who splash the cash. It is easy to see why he took it in his position. It is a very difficult job in reality and they may go down. If they do they would be wise to stick with Lampard IMHO.
Gerrard prepared well and took the Ibrox job. He did pretty well, but joined astutely at an opportune time against a fading Celtic. He is not really missed at Ibrox by the fans.
He has gone to Villa, similar size club to Everton, who have spent £350m since being promoted, £117m by Gerrard himself, plus God Knows how much on Coutinho wages. Villa are in the same position 11th as last season, on fewer points per match and will not get to last season's points total of 55. I'm not at all sure why he is seen to have done well.
Everyone has an angle. I preferred Lampard as a player and think him by far the more impressive man. Intelligent, articulate, charismatic, ultra well connected.
I get that others would favour Gerrard, an excellent player and an edgier figure.
It will be interesting to see whose career is more successful. Obviously Frank's playing honours dwarf Gerrard's, but in management it counts for very little.