Chelsea appoint new head coach ... for the youth team

Chelsea’s youth setup continues to take care of business — maybe we should make Neil Bath the Director of Football for all of Chelsea — and today have appointed a replacement for U18 head coach Jody Morris, who left to join Frank Lampard’s mini-Chelsea at Derby. (They were recently joined by Chris Jones as well, who also upgraded his standing from “just” a fitness coach to a full-on first-team coach with the move!)

In any case, Morris’s replacement, unsurprisingly, is from the Academy coaching ranks, and it’s another former Chelsea player. Andy Myers becomes the 22nd youth coach in club history, and continues the roughly two-year cycle under which coaches move up the ranks (only Dickie Foss in the ‘50s and ‘60s and the disgraced Gwyn Williams in the ‘80s had been in charge for significantly longer than 2-3 years).

Born about 10 miles from Stamford Bridge, local kid turned left back Andrew John Myers came up through the youth ranks at Chelsea, making his debut as just a 17-year-old in 1991. While he never quite nailed down a starting spot, he collected over 100 appearances in the next 8 years before leaving for Bradford City, where he was twice named Player of the Year. He retired in 2005, got into coaching, and returned to the Blues a few years later in a youth coaching capacity.

As many before him, he worked his way up the ranks, starting with the U15s and recently serving as assistant manager for the U21s under Joe Edwards. Myers also went “on loan” to Vitesse for a season, and had worked with Adi Viveash beforehand. He’s as well-steeped in Chelsea Academy coaching as anyone and will undoubtedly do well in his new post.

“Andy has been coaching in a number of roles at the Academy for the past decade so he knows our programme extremely well and, as an ex-player, has a strong connection to the club. It’s a well-deserved move into a lead coaching role and I know Andy is looking forward to continuing his work with the development of our young players.”

-Neil Bath; source: Chelsea FC

Congrats, Andy!

P.S.: Here’s Andy in his playing days, in the greatest non-blue Chelsea kit of all time. OF ALL TIME!