Chelsea 'headhunt' Crystal Palace academy coach Jack Measure — report

According to Matt Woosnam from the South London Press & Mercury, Chelsea have “headhunted” — almost as dramatic as a gazzump! — highly regarded Crystal Palace youth academy coach Jack Measure, and he is now “set to join” the Blues while leaving Palace a little shorthanded.

Measure, who’s only 30 years old, had been with Palace for almost a decade, and has built a strong reputation while working with their U16 and U23 sides. He had been in the coaching game before that, even, beginning his career at non-league Sutton United, where he was also a youth player for a while.

Measure must have truly impressed Chelsea Academy boss Neil Bath as Chelsea usually look towards our own for youth coaching appointments. Most of the ranks are filled by former players at this point, especially at the older age groups. Both the U23s (Joe Edwards, Ed Brand) and U18s (Andy Myers, Jon Harley) are led by former Chelsea players and prospects, while the likes of Tore Andre Flo, Paulo Ferreira, and Eddie Newton are involved on the loan army side of things. Our visibility is not so great at the younger age groups, but a lot of those names got their starts there before working their way up the ladder — Harley and Myers spent almost a decade each working with the younger age groups, for example.

Incidentally, former captain John Terry was recently rumored to be joining the Academy coaching setup as well, though that story was riddled with errors and logical inconsistencies, so it’s probably not happening (yet).