Just being Frank is a feelgood hit, but will it win trophies for Chelsea? | Jacob Steinberg


Lampard gets it, Solskjær too. Sentimentality goes a long way in football – but it takes more to win a title

In most lines of work your job application would discarded straight away if you listed “getting it” as a key skill. Be aware that it might come across as slightly vague, a bit fluffy, damning evidence of a lack of substance. You would probably be written off as a spoofer attempting to blag your way through life. A bluffer. A charlatan. A fraud.

Unless, of course, you happen to be applying for a job as manager of a football club grasping for a way to connect with a discontented fanbase. Then it makes perfect sense to place a heavy focus on getting it, even if the meaning of “it” is not immediately possible to define, and take your cue from Ole Gunnar Solskjær, who built his initial success at Manchester United largely on making heavy reference to doing an important goal in Barcelona 20 years ago.

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