Birmingham City and Burnley in battle for Chelsea, Everton and Man City man as key figure departs

Birmingham City have reportedly interviewed Chelsea and England legend Frank Lampard for their managerial vacancy.

Football Insider have reported that Blues have interviewed Lampard about becoming their next manager and is 'believed to be high' on their shortlist to replace Tony Mowbray. Lampard is also under consideration for the vacancy at Championship side Burnley who are on the hunt for a new manager after Vincent Kompany's exit to Bayern Munich.

Lampard has been out of work since May 2023 after working as interim manager at Chelsea. He won just once in 11 matches after taking over from Graham Potter and spent the last season out of work.

The 45-year-old however did make a good start to management when he took over Derby County in 2018. He led the Rams to the Championship play-off final where they would lose to Birmingham's inter city rivals Aston Villa.

Lampard with just one year of senior management under his belt landed the job of head coach at Chelsea and worked through the parameters of a transfer embargo to guide the club to a fourth placed finish and an FA Cup final.

Birmingham remain in the process of appointing a new manager and on Tuesday (June 4) the club posted an update. They have announced that assistant coach Mark Venus would be departing the club. Venus was Mowbray's right hand man and took on the role of caretaker manager during Mowbray's absence but was replaced by Gary Rowett for the final stretch of the season.

Venus' departure helps create a clearer path for the next manager to name his own coaching team. Paul Robinson along with Dave Carolan left the club after Rowett's interim period came to an end. First-team coach Ashley Cole is also out of contract as well. The Chelsea legend is understood to have admirers in the EFL who would consider appointing him as their head coach.

After Mowbray's departure, former Preston North End and Sunderland boss Alex Neil became the front-runner and last week it was claimed he was in 'pole position' to land the job. The journalist Wayne Veysey that has reported the news of Lampard's interview also claimed that Birmingham had made contact to Carlos Corberan.

Corberan is manager of West Brom and guided the Baggies to a fifth placed finish in the Championship last term and is subject of interest from Burnley as well and Leicester City who have both been told that it will cost between £3.5m and £4m to acquire his services.