On what will hopefully be a great day for Frank Lampard and his Chelsea side, one man will be missing and that, unusually, will be his father, Frank Lampard Snr.
The latter, a fine servant for West Ham United, has followed his son’s career from the very beginning, and through into management, rarely missing a game.
However, this Saturday’s FA Cup final has changed all that.
The coronavirus pandemic has meant that no relatives or friends are allowed inside the grand old stadium, and rather than watch it at the pub he owns in Wanstead, The Nightingale, he will do so at home, alone.
“The punters in the pub are ringing up asking ‘have you got the game on?’” Lampard Snr told The Sun.
“There will be a screen outside but I won’t be there. I get nervous.
“My daughter lives round the corner but they’ll watch it at theirs and I’ll sit here on my own like a miserable b*****d.
“Even if I watched with them, I wouldn’t be comfortable. Even if Chelsea could get me in at Wembley, it wouldn’t feel right.
“I watched Frank play home and away and always went on my own. Pals would say ‘we’ll come for the ride with you’ but it never happened, I didn’t want it.
“I’m just thinking about the game all the way there and back. When he was playing I got far more nervous than when I played.
“I went to virtually every match he played for Chelsea, Manchester City and when he started off managing at Derby.
“Even when Frank played in the States (for New York City FC), I’d fly over, stay one night then fly home.”
With football returning in six weeks for the 2020/21 campaign, the hope will surely be that crowds are allowed back into stadiums sooner rather than later.
Frank Lampard Snr clearly enjoys the routine of following his son all around the country, and the support is unlikely to go unnoticed from a manager who is fast becoming one of England’s best.