How Chelsea should approach their search for a new technical director at Stamford Bridge

On the face of it, it’s hardly the most demanding job in world football. Spending Roman Abramovich’s rubles for him and identifying the players to keep Chelsea a force in the game.

You may not take home quite as much at the end of every month, as the stars you’re persuading to join, but as deal-broker you effectively control the purse strings as well as the club.

Being a club’s technical director certainly beat the pressure of management, that’s for sure.

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So there’s little surprise that already a number of people have put their hand up for the role vacated by Michael Emenalo last week.

Frank Lampard, quizzed during a trip to Japan, wouldn’t rule out stepping into the breach after it all got too much for Emenalo as the in-house blame game left him no option but to call it a day after ten years.

“I worked with Michael for seven or eight years and his role at the club coincided with the most successful period in Chelsea’s history so I think he deserves a lot of credit from that,” said the Stamford Bridge legend, who made 429 appearances for the Premier League club scoring 174 goals from midfield.

“Everyone at Chelsea wishes him well as he moves on. In terms of myself, I don’t know.

“I’m a Chelsea person, I’d love to be involved with the club long-term in some way. We’ll see.”

A watch-this-space from Lampard then, and he’s not the only Blues icon to be touted as Emenalo’s replacement.

Didier Drogba is also in ruthless Russian Roman’s eye-line, but hiring a club legend would be risky business.

The idea seems solid enough. Chelsea need unifying, and they need their identity back. After an era of heroes left for retirement then what better way than to find a role for one of them at the top of the tree?

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Though there are potholes in the road to harmony. Abramovich is trigger happy and should things not work, the rejection of a fans’ favourite would only act to wider the gap between fan and boardroom.

The last thing Chelsea need right now is for manager Antonio Conte to be further alienated.

Being answerable to a former player everyone adores and has never managed would undermine him, and weaken the link between the billionaire owner and manager.

There is one man who hasn’t got the history, but was still a great. Conte’s compatriot Andrea Pirlo has been spotted at games and seems a more sensible fit. With no weight of Stamford Bridge status acting as a millstone around the manager’s neck, it appears a more logistical approach.

But all the candidates have one thing in common. They haven’t got experience of working in a similar position at any other European giant.

Chelsea, for all their transfer market problems, may be better heading in a different direction altogether.

Or, failing that, Sir Alex Ferguson didn’t have a bad record running Manchester United from top to bottom. Why not let your manager manage?