Swansea's Marsh appointed Loans and Pathways Manager at Chelsea
Josh Marsh: Joined Swansea as Head of Football Operations in June 2022
Written by Training Ground Guru — March 2, 2024
CHELSEA have appointed Swansea City’s Josh Marsh as their new Loans and Pathways Manager.
Marsh has been the Swans Head of Football Operations for the last 20 months, although the arrival of Paul Watson from Luton as Sporting Director in June 2023 put the position in doubt.
Prior to joining Swansea, Marsh worked for Huddersfield Town for six-and-a-half years, first as Chief Scout and then Head of Recruitment. He presented along with his Huddersfield colleagues at our 2021 Individual Development Webinar.
Chelsea are looking to change the way they work with loans under co-Sporting Directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart. Under the ownership of Roman Abramovich, they loaned out a huge number of players. In 2017, we reported that they had loaned out players to 87 different clubs in the previous five seasons.
In total Lucas Piazón went out on seven loans during his time with the club and later said: “It makes no sense to go on loan all the time. It is not good for any player in my experience - or the experience of the other boys. I don't see it as a positive thing any more. To be in a different place every year is not good for me at 22.”
Under new FIFA regulations, clubs are only able to loan out (and in) seven players this season and six from 2024/25. Chelsea want all of these to be development opportunities for young players. Chelsea previously had three Loan Technical Coaches, but Andy Myers left last year to become Joe Edwards' assistant at Millwall, while Paulo Ferreira left in March 2022 and went on to become assistant at Lille.
Our Individual Development Webinar is available on-demand and features six presentations:
- Rhys Carr: Developing the player within the team.
- Russell Martin: Individual development at first-team level.
- Huddersfield Town: An individual way of working across an entire club.
- Saul Isaksson-Hurst: One-on-one skills coaching.
- Matt Crocker: Individual development the Southampton way.
- Austin Fuller & Shayne Hall: How tech can support player development.
To purchase the webinar, for just £10, click the button below.
Only one of the Loan Technical Coaches remains - the former Chelsea goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini, who will be part of Marsh's team.
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