If you're looking for FA Cup tradition in the modern game, there are few better places to start than Frank Lampard and Coventry City.
Lampard won the trophy four times as a player, scoring the winning goal in the 2009 final, and led Chelsea to Wembley as manager in 2009. His father, Frank Sr., was part of the West Ham team that defeated Arsenal in the final 45 years ago. .
Coventry beat Tottenham in a classic final in 1987 and was one cruel VAR call away from staging one of the great comebacks in last season's semi-final against Manchester United.
Now Lampard and Coventry are trying to write more FA Cup stories together. The former Chelsea and England midfielder will lead his tenth game in charge when the Sky Blues take on Sheffield Wednesday in the third round on Saturday.
Never accuse Lampard of ducking a challenge. After a promising start to his managerial career, at Derby and during his first spell at Chelsea, Lampard struggled at Everton. It was even more difficult in his second spell at Stamford Bridge, a temporary spell that followed the sacking of Graham Potter.
It is his credit that he has decided to return to the championship to rebuild himself. This is a difficult club, whose owner, Doug King, is not willing to sit back and allow the manager to get on with his job. King has invested much of his personal fortune in trying to reach the Premier League, but that is unlikely to happen until next season at the earliest.
Frank Lampard will take charge of his tenth Coventry game on Saturday when they host Sheffield Wednesday.
The former Chelsea midfielder won the FA Cup four times during his illustrious career.
Coventry fans were outraged when Mark Robins, one of the best managers in their history, was sacked last November and it has been a slow process so far for Lampard. They have achieved three wins, three draws and three defeats, the last of which was a painful 2-1 defeat at Norwich in which both of the home team's goals came in injury time.
However, the team's response has been largely positive. Instead of reading the scoresheet after the Norwich game, Lampard is believed to have told the team simply that he felt devastated for them. There wouldn't have been much point in reprimanding a group of players whose morale was already at rock bottom.
Training sessions have been more detailed and players have received detailed information before each match about the strengths and weaknesses of their direct opponents.
Although there have been more individual and collective meetings than under Robins, these have been shorter, with Lampard focusing on three or four key messages and analyzing them repeatedly. At previous clubs, Lampard sometimes left his coaches to lead sessions, but here he is very involved, especially in the tactical work towards the end of the week.
Lampard has wanted to create a feeling of unity among his players and before the lunchtime match at home against Hull on December 14, he met them at a hotel the night before so they could have breakfast together the next morning. Coventry put in a great performance and earned a 2-1 victory.
Although some of the club's younger players grew up idolizing Lampard, they are said to find him approachable. In their first meetings, Lampard made it clear to the team that his door is always open and he has stuck to that so far.
Lampard watched last season's semi-final on television, when Coventry came back from 3-0 down to take United to extra time, and Victor Torp thought he had scored the winning goal with virtually the last kick. The VAR disallowed the goal for a tighter offside and United won the penalty shootout.
Midfielder Josh Eccles admitted it took the team about a month to recover from that defeat and the suspicion is that the memory still lingers today, perhaps partly responsible for a slow first half of the season in the league.
Coventry suffered a heartbreaking semi-final defeat to eventual winners Manchester United last season.
Midfielder Josh Eccles admitted it took the team about a month to recover from the defeat.
The best way to banish this is to perform well again in the Cup and, although Coventry sit in the bottom half of the Championship table, just six points above the bottom three, the competition will never be an afterthought for Lampard.
“We are very lucky to do this job and if you don't understand the magic of the Cup and what it means, you will find out tomorrow,” he said. 'You'll see it by our fans and the number of fans that travel on Wednesdays.
'There is always an extra edge in relationships. This is not an everyday Cup. It has much more history and tradition than similar competitions around the world. Whether you're 21 or 46, you treat him with the same respect.
“I may have different feelings about it as I've grown up with it, that's normal, but the players that come up now will respect that too.”
“There is a lot of football and respect for coaches who prioritize different competitions. When I was a coach at Derby we had good runs in the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup. It brought us good feelings, good attention and we ended up reaching the play-off final of the championship that season.
“I don't know to what extent they were together, but when you go to Old Trafford and win, the players grow, whether they are young or experienced.” I don't see anything negative about a good run in the Cup.
'We should celebrate the history and tradition of this club in the FA Cup. No one needs to tell me its importance.