Lampard is the gaffer at Derby
FRANK LAMPARD has agreed to become the new Derby County manager. And, as revealed by Sportsmail yesterday, the 39-year-old will be assisted at Pride Park by Chelsea Under 18s coach Jody Morris. Lampard will be tasked with keeping the Championship side in the hunt for promotion, while shaping a veteran squad on a budget. Derby finished sixth in the season just gone, but lost to Fulham in the play-off semi-finals and work is needed on a team populated by players in their thirties. Replacing Gary Rowett, who left to join Stoke nine days ago, will see Lampard take his first step into management. The 106-cap England international walked away from offers tabled by Oxford and Ipswich to wait for the right opportunity, but considers the prospects at Derby too good to turn down.
TO FIND a junior side more dominant than the one Jody Morris is leaving, you would have to go back to the days of Duncan Edwards. Manchester United’s Busby Babes in the 1950s were the last team to win five successive FA Youth Cups, a feat matched by Chelsea Under 18s this season. Morris has been at the heart of that run, joining as assistant coach for the 2015 and 2016 triumphs and masterminding their 2017 and 2018 victories as manager. Having gone from prodigy to Chelsea first team as a player, there are few more ideal mentors than Derby County’s new assistant manager. His Chelsea team have won in style, too, scoring 106 goals in 35 matches this season as they collected a quadruple of titles, adding the Under 18 Southern Division, Premier League Cup and Premier League to their FA Youth Cup. Chelsea have been accused of failing to convert their dominance at youth level into first-team footballers, but Morris’s approach is starting to reap rewards. Andreas Christensen made 40 appearances for the senior side this season and teenagers Callum Hudson-Odoi and Dujon Sterling have also made inroads into the first team. Tammy Abraham and Ruben Loftus-Cheek made England debuts after spending time under Morris. ‘We get knocked because of the academy’s success,’ Morris said. ‘Then not many of our players get into the first team, but you never know when that could change.’ Change has come for Morris and he looks ready to make the step up.