Lampard’s respectful return tells a lot about the man
Or maybe, as the past week has illustrated, it’s a bit more complex and nuanced than that, when it comes to what reception to give a returning legend that’s now playing for an opposing team.
The first time this column can remember coming across the phenomenon was Ray Clemence’s return to Anfield with Spurs in May 1982.
Clemence was unsure how he would be greeted by a home support he had played in front of for more than 11 seasons. He had left Liverpool by his own volition, though it wasn’t widely known at the time.
Years later he’d reveal that the moment he decided he wanted to move on from Liverpool was when he surveyed the dressing room after the 1981 European Cup final win over Real Madrid. “There was champagne everywhere and TV cameras. It was just another day in the office for me.” At 32, he had no more worlds to conquer — with Liverpool. “For me to play longer at the level I wanted to play, I needed a new challenge.”
There was nothing official rolled out by Liverpool for his return. Their affection would be much more organic than that. When Clemence ran down towards the Kop for the start of the second half, that terrace and the whole stadium rose to salute the club’s greatest-ever goalkeeper and chant his name.
Liverpool would put three goals past him in the second half to secure that league title but the abiding memory for everyone — home supporters, Clemence, this observer — is both player and crowd hands-above-head applauding each other, a class gesture for a class act.
Not every player gets to leave and return to a club as magnificently as that. Over the past month or so, the NBA has had a raft of returns and an interesting array of reactions.
Last week Josh Smith was booed — more with disdain than any vitriol — when he went to the scorers’ table to check in for the Houston Rockets against the Detroit Pistons. When Smith had been on the Detroit roster, they had lost all but five of their opening 29 games. Once they off-loaded someone they were (over)paying $54m over four years, they’d win seven straight games.
Last summer, the Minnesota Timberwolves’ best player, Kevin Love, left to team up with LeBron James at the Cleveland Cavaliers, frustrated that after six seasons the Timberwolves had still yet to make the playoffs. When he made his first trip back to Minneapolis at the weekend, there was a lot more ambiguity than love for Love in the house.
Old teammates embraced him. So did franchise owners. But supporters booed. During one timeout a video tribute of his time with the Timberwolves was shown, the club’s promo for the game, titled The Return, was hardly so respectful. It started typical of that genre: ‘It’s been all building up to this... The game we’ve been waiting for... The return of...’ Only it wasn’t of Love, but a Cavs benchplayer called Mike Miller who played for the Timberwolves for a solitary season back in 2008-9.
Love laughed the spoof off. Miller wasn’t as amused. Interestingly though, neither was the Wolves coach and general manager Flip Saunders, claiming it could detract from trying to sign future players. “Would [defending champions] San Antonio do that? It just doesn’t send the right message.”
There were no such complications when Pau Gasol returned to the LA Lakers with the Chicago Bulls last week, or Rajon Rondo to the Boston Celtics last month with the Dallas Mavericks. There were no boos or mock videos, only ovations, tributes, and respect. It said as much about the standing of both fabled franchises as it did both players: we’re no longer contenders, for now, so you have our blessing and thanks.
With some players and teams, it isn’t as straightforward. When LeBron James left — abandoned — Cleveland in 2010, his first return there with the Miami Heat was greeted with outright hostility. Last Christmas Day, he returned to Miami as a Cavalier. For the most part he received respectful applause, an acknowledgement of his central role to leading them to two NBA titles in his four seasons. Tellingly though, Miami’s legendary president Pat Riley stayed rooted in his seat after a tribute video to James, clearly still, to use a term of his, “pissed” the paternal guidance he afforded James hadn’t been given due love and respect when LeBron decided last summer to take his talents back to Ohio.
All things considered so, both Frank Lampard and Chelsea emerged with honour last Saturday. There was a mixed and muted reception when Manuel Pellegrini brought him on. And one supporter displayed a carded poster: ‘Lampard: You are not a legend anymore. You are a traitor to Chelsea FC and Chelsea fans.’ But when the final whistle went and Lampard respectfully lingered to applaud all ends of a stadium he adorned, the same stadium reciprocated, standing to chant his name.
The reception of a returning player tells us a lot. About a sport. A country. A club. The people in the stands, from the competitive and godfather instincts of Riley to the ignorance of Lampard’s ‘betrayed’. And, of course, the player. That Lampard in football, in England, playing with a rival club and league champions and contenders, got the reaction he did upon the final whistle in Stamford Bridge was some mark of the man. Almost Clemence-like. Bualadh bos arís.
