Joe Edwards, Chris Jones, Ashley Cole join Lampard’s coaching staff at Chelsea

Frank Lampard’s tenure as Caretaker Manager didn’t exactly begin the way we would have all hoped it would begin, but we’re all too old to believe in fairy tales anyway. Snap back to reality!

The listless 1-0 defeat at Molineux was the crowning sad trombone on what’s been an odd week even by Chelsea standards, with Lampard now our third head coach of the past seven days, and the product on the pitch matched that level of aimless incoherence.

The situation in the dugout was slightly odd as well, with none of those sitting next to Lampard officially confirmed by the club as having been appointed. When asked about it afterwards, Lampard basically said that what you see is what you get.

“I can’t speak about the backroom, for some reason other than what you saw. You can write what you saw.”

-Frank Lampard; source: Football.London

So, what shall we write, or more accurately, whom did we see?

In the dugout were the familiar faces of Joe Edwards and Chris Jones, both long-time fixtures of the Chelsea (senior and youth) coaching ranks and who had been with Lampard at Everton as well. Edwards spent some time with Tuchel, too, just long enough to win the Champions League. Jones meanwhile has been with Lampard since the start, at Derby County, spending over a decade prior to that as a fitness coach at Chelsea.

Photo by Andrew Kearns - CameraSport via Getty Images

Not in the dugout, but seen during pre-match warm-ups was the legendary face of Ashley Cole, back for the second time as coach and third overall after leaving last year to also join Lampard at Everton. Ash has continued to work with the England U21s throughout as well.

As per reports, the goalkeepers were still primarily tended to by Ben Roberts, now the sole coaching holdover from the Graham Potter era.

There were some reports that Paul Clement would also come along with Lampard, but that evidently hasn’t happened. (...yet?) We’ll know for sure if and when it’s all confirmed.

There was one mystery man in the dugout yesterday, seated between Jones and the two physios, wearing AB-monogrammed gear. No, it was not Anthony Barry. And it wasn’t even someone just stealing Anthony Barry’s clothes. As far as I can tell, it was Andy Boughey, who was promoted to “First Team Player Development Analyst” in January after a decade spent coaching and working in a similar analyst role at the Academy. Congrats, Andy!

Photo by James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images