Eddie Newton to join Lampard’s coaching staff at Chelsea — report

According to the Times, former Chelsea midfielder and current loan player technical coach Eddie Newton will join Frank Lampard’s first-team coaching staff.

While Lampard is expected to bring some of his Derby County staff with him, including former Chelsea U18 head coach Jody Morris, Chelsea want to (need to) “add numbers” to the backroom set-up that lost all eleven coaches brought in by Maurizio Sarri, as well as Gianfranco Zola, who set to leave the club and look for a managerial appointment.

Newton’s role change is not unexpected given the recent rumors of Claude Makélélé also returning to Chelsea to work with the loan players in some capacity.

Newton has over a decade of coaching experience, starting with MK Dons in 2008-09 where he was Roberto Di Matteo’s assistant. The two of them would wind up working together at West Brom, and then at Chelsea as well. Since then, save for a brief spell as interim manager Guus Hiddink’s assistant in 2015-16, Newton had been working behind the scenes at the club, mostly as the main conduit between Chelsea and the Loan Army.

Newton’s return to first-team coaching would add even more Chelsea playing experience to a staff already bursting with it. Lampard, Morris, Newton and technical advisor Petr Cech have over 1500 Chelsea appearances between them, and provide an unquestionable link to Chelsea’s successes across generations. We can only hope that translates to this new era as well!