FRANK LAMPARD’S wait for a new job continues after missing out on a return to the Championship.
The former Chelsea ace, 45, was backed as one of the favourites for the Bristol City job after the Robins sacked Nigel Pearson.
Pearson was dismissed on October 29 after leading Bristol to just five wins in fourteen games this season.
The then-fifteenth-placed Robins were placed under the temporary stewardship of assistant manager Curtis Fleming, who oversaw a 1-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.
But while ex-Chelsea boss Lampard was backed by the bookies to return to the dugout as Pearson’s long-term replacement, Bristol have instead opted to bring in Liam Manning from Oxford United.
The news of Manning’s appointment was revealed in a tweet on Tuesday.
Having previously managed MK Dons and Lommel SK in Belgium, Manning joined Oxford in March.
He won eleven of his eighteen games in charge, guiding Oxford to second in League One.
In August, Manning was named the league’s Manager of the Month.
The 38-year-old will now look to guide Bristol to the Premier League for the first time in the club’s history.
As for Lampard, his search for a new club continues.
His managerial career kicked off in 2018, leading Derby County to the playoffs in his first season before taking the helm at Stamford Bridge.
Despite a strong start, working academy starlets such as Reece James, Mason Mount, and Fikayo Tomori into the first team, Lampard’s tenure came to an end in January 2021 after a poor run left the club sitting ninth in the Prem.
The following January he took control of Everton but won just twelve of his 44 games in charge before being dismissed just under a year later.
Lampard returned to the Stamford Bridge dugout as interim boss the following April, replacing Graham Potter who had endured a torrid time since moving from Brighton.
One win in eleven matches followed, with the former England star having remained unemployed since.
