Newly appointed Derby County manager Frank Lampard has named Chelsea academy coach Jody Morris as his assistant at the Rams.
While losing an influential figure from the Blues’ youth setup may seem devastating news on paper, it may not be all bad news for Chelsea fans. Lampard could opt to take many of Chelsea’s talented youngsters on loan next season and this could provide them with a platform to gain experience and grow as players.
Chelsea may have had a frustrating season as they finished fifth in the Premier League and ended the campaign with just one piece of silverware, in the FA Cup.
While the club have performed badly by their expectations at first-team level, they continued to dominate the youth football scene and clinched their fifth successive FA Youth Cup under the guidance of Morris. No other team has done this since the Manchester United side of the 50s, which was led by Sir Matt Busby.
While Chelsea have not generally shown faith in much of their youth products, Morris has helped to nurture the talent of promising talents such as Andreas Christensen, who featured in the heart of Antonio Conte’s defence last season, as well as Callum Hudson-Odoi and Dujon Sterling.
Morris also played a role in the development of Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who managed to win himself a place in the 23-man England World Cup squad that travels to Russia and the youngster is expected to return to the Blues next term following a successful season-long loan deal with Crystal Palace.
The 39-year-old Morris will take with him a strong knowledge on how to develop quality young talent to Pride Park and this could well help the Rams to achieve their objective of clinching promotion to the Premier League for the first time since their disastrous 2007/08 season.
