Written by Training Ground Guru — February 23, 2022
WHEN Frank Lampard was appointed as Everton's new manager at the end of January, there were a couple of notable absences from his coaching staff.
One was Anthony Barry, who had come onto the staff at Chelsea in the summer of 2020 after three years assisting Paul Cook at Wigan. The 35-year-old, who had been on the same Uefa Pro Licence cohort as Lampard with the English FA, decided to stay on with the Blues, where he is a highly-valued member of Thomas Tuchel’s staff.
The other absence was that of Jody Morris, who had had a much longer association with the former England midfielder. Morris, 43, was Lampard’s assistant at both Derby County and Chelsea and prior to that the duo played together for England Under-21s and Chelsea.
After retiring from playing at the age of 34, Morris turned to coaching, garnering a strong reputation with Chelsea’s Academy. However, he didn't join Lampard's staff at Everton and explained the reasons why in an interview with Talksport.
“When we first got sacked from Chelsea (in January 2021), after about a month I was approached by a Championship club to interview for the manager’s job," Morris said.
“I rang Frank straight away and said, 'I don’t want it to look like I’m jumping ship, what do you think?' First of all I wanted his advice as a mate and I also wanted to let him know I’m not looking at doing something else. He was like ‘absolutely.’ The club, he felt, was quality and he said it was a great opportunity.
“I always felt I would be a manager one day but didn’t think I’d thinking about it so soon. I went and spoke to the club a couple of times and the more I thought about it, the more I realised it was something that suited the way I was feeling, that I want to be a manager myself.
“I’ve spoken to three or four clubs now and am in that process of committing to that’s what I want to do. I haven’t got over the line with the clubs and hopefully I’m not sitting here this time next year saying the same thing because I don’t want to be out of work forever, but being a manager is definitely what I want to do.”
Lampard took two staff who had worked with him at Chelsea - Joe Edwards and Chris Jones - to Everton, along with Paul Clement and Ashley Cole.
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