LONDON – New Chelsea interim manager Frank Lampard has yet to oversee a match in his second stint in the Stamford Bridge dugout, but former Blues boss Guus Hiddink believes he should be handed the role on a permanent basis.

On Thursday, Chelsea’s joint-controlling owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali said in a statement that Lampard, who won 13 trophies as a player in west London, would return to the club in the wake of Graham Potter’s dismissal last Sunday.

Lampard previously managed the Blues from July 2019 to January 2021 during Roman Abramovich’s ownership of the club.

He guided the club to a fourth-place finish in 2019/20, winning 20 of 38 league games. He also lost the 2020 FA Cup final to Arsenal.

The former England midfielder – Chelsea’s all-time leading goalscorer with 211 goals – had been out of a job since January, when he was sacked by relegation-threatened Everton after less than a year in charge.

Speaking ahead of Chelsea’s Premier League trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday, Hiddink told The Daily Telegraph: “Honestly, I don’t want him to be seen as just an interim manager.

“But also to get the confidence to continue with the project next season. He knows the club like no other and it’s important to give things continuity.

“Like everyone, Lampard will need time. Chelsea have invested a lot of money but now have to adjust to an idea.”

Dutchman Hiddink, 76, knows full well what it takes to take interim charge at Chelsea, having done it twice, in 2009 and 2015-16, having managed Lampard during his initial stint.

His first spell was particularly impressive, losing just once in 22 matches and helping the Blues lift the 2009 FA Cup.

Hiddink, who led PSV Eindhoven to the European Cup and South Korea and the Netherlands to fourth at the World Cup, suggested Lampard’s first managerial stint at Chelsea came too soon.

He said: “Perhaps it was too early to take on such a big responsibility. He had just started his coaching career and now he has more experience, he’s better prepared.

“He has a chance to do something nice with the Champions League at the end of the season. And I think he can be the man to lead the new Chelsea.”

Former Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp, who is Lampard’s uncle, also believes the 44-year-old could become “a top manager”.

He told talkSPORT: “You look at the squad, all of the players they’ve got there, they’re full of absolute top talent...

“It’s a great chance for Frank, it can put him back on the big stage if he does well. Even if he doesn’t get the Chelsea job, at least it’ll put him back in the frame for something else again...

“He wants to come back and try to prove that he can become a top manager. I’m sure he can, given the right opportunities.”

However, Lampard’s appointment has its fair share of detractors. Former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan described Lampard’s spell at Everton this season as “poor”.

He told talkSPORT: “If that’s the blueprint for an iconic, elite, £2.5 billion (S$4.14 billion) football club to solve a problem, to go back to Frank Lampard, then there’s something lacking in their thinking.

“It’s lightweight, populist thinking. It is lazy, formulaic and uninspired by Boehly and I think Frank Lampard is a lucky boy.”

Leeds United and Ireland legend John Giles concurred, calling the appointment “total rubbish”.

He told Ireland’s The Football Show: “I can’t see him performing miracles until the end of the season to get the job again...

“It’s a mad house, Chelsea, at the moment.”