Frank Lampard is closing on a return to management with Coventry, 18 months after exiting Chelsea. Lampard is expected to succeed Mark Robins, who was sacked after almost eight years in charge, with the club 17th in the Championship, two points above the relegation zone.

Lampard has been out of coaching since leaving his interim role in charge of Chelsea at the end of 2022-23, but the 46-year-old former England midfielder is poised to return to the dugout in a division he knows from his time in charge of Derby, whom he guided to the playoff final in 2019.

If Coventry can finalise a deal with Lampard, his first game in charge could be at home to Cardiff on Saturday. Coventry lost 2-0 at Burnley on Tuesday, the third game in charge for Rhys Carr as interim head coach.

Coventry’s chairman, Doug King, has stressed the importance of making the correct next move. “I cannot have the risk of us getting relegated,” he said at a fans’ forum this month. “Nobody thought Birmingham would get relegated – and they did. The next appointment is very important.”

King has been driving the appointment of their next manager, with the help of the head of recruitment, Dean Austin, and the performance director, Dr Claire-Marie Roberts.

The ambitious owner cited the club’s failure to move on from the breakup in the relationship between Robins and his longtime assistant, Adi Viveash, whose summer departure prompted a restructure, as a contributing factor behind his dismissal. Carr and the former midfielder George Boateng joined as first-team coaches in July.

“I had to do something,” said King, who acquired the club at the beginning of last year. “Sometimes a tough decision has to be made. I like Mark Robins and we had good times together – but it had to be made.”