In the final minute of the game, which saw West Ham draw 1-1 to seal a 2-1 aggregate victory, a 17-year-old Carrick stepped off the bench to replace Marc Keller at the heart of the Hammers midfield. The player he found himself playing alongside as he strode onto the pitch? A certain Frank Lampard, who had scored his side’s decisive goal in the 70th minute.
Fast forward more than a quarter of a century, and Carrick and Lampard will be back alongside each other on the touchline at Coventry City’s CBS Arena this lunchtime as their respective clubs battle for a place in the Championship play-offs.
Friends, colleagues, former team-mates at both club and international level. Two of the best central-midfielders of their generation. Today, though, they will meet as managerial rivals with their clubs’ seasons effectively on the line. Even for two of the most experienced figures in the game, it will be a novel experience.
“I’ve actually known Frank since I was 13 at West Ham,” said Carrick, who might have been born and raised in Wallsend, but whose footballing journey began at the ‘Academy of Football’ at Upton Park. “I came through just behind him in the School of Excellence and the youth team.
“We go quite a long way back. I’ve also played against him in some big games, as big as you can get in terms of Premier League and Champions League. That definitely lends itself to a bit of a sense of competitiveness, but I’ve got huge respect for Frank.
“I’ve respected him since the very first time I trained with him and saw his attitude and mentality to the game as a young lad. That made him into what kind of player he was.
“I know him personally of course, but coming up against him, we’ve kind of covered a lot of bases. This one is obviously a different one again, but it’s not so much me against Frank, it’s about the two football clubs and the two teams on the pitch.”
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Unlike Carrick, who is still in his first senior managerial role, having taken over at Middlesbrough in October 2022, Lampard has already achieved considerable success since hanging up his boots.
He took his first club, Derby, into the Championship play-offs, losing at Wembley to Aston Villa, and also led Chelsea to Wembley in the FA Cup final.
He was appointed as Coventry boss in late November, succeeding Mark Robins, and oversaw a marked improvement in the Sky Blues’ form. From mid-January to mid-March, Coventry won nine of their ten Championship matches, a run of form that lifted them from the lower reaches of mid-table into the play-off positions.
Things have stuttered slightly since then, with Lampard’s side having won just two of their last seven games, but they still head into the final game of the season sitting in the top six, knowing that a win over Boro will guarantee their place in the play-offs no matter what happens elsewhere.
“Frank’s done a fantastic job,” said Carrick. “Mark had done for a number of years as well, and Frank has carried that on. They’ve got a really good squad with good players, and they’ve proven that over a number of years with the different successes they’ve had, in the league and the FA Cup.
“They’ve continued that with the run they’ve gone on with Frank. I’m not surprised to see them up there – I thought they would end up in and around it towards the end of the season. Credit to them for that – they’ve put a good run together and they’ve got themselves where they are, around us. I’m sure it will be a good game.”
