Jody Morris could be Chelsea manager one day but it should not be soon

Jody Morris has established himself as one of the best youth coaches in the world. But that does not make him ready to be Chelsea manager yet.

Morris has been in charge of Chelsea’s U18 side since 2016. Since then, he has led the side to success after success. He has developed the youth superbly and has shown an eye towards adjusting his tactics to suit the moment.

Naturally, the side of Chelsea that is enamored by the academy and youth has suggest Morris to take over for Antonio Conte whenever he departs. They believe that the style of play Morris implements, his willingness to use youth and his own development at Chelsea would make him the perfect candidate. They believe that Morris is Chelsea’ own Pep Guardiola or Zinedine Zidane in waiting.

Except when that notion meets reality, it falls flat on most points. Morris could, eventually, be the Chelsea manager. But the current moment is too soon and yes, he is far too inexperienced for Chelsea to risk it at such a crucial moment in the club’s history.

Morris has been immensely successful at the academy level. This is true. But so has Joe Edwards with the U23’s. Edwards is rarely if ever mentioned when talking about the academy. In a sense this is understandable. Chelsea loan or sell out their best youth before they age out of the U18 side. But Edwards still takes charge of a highly successful team but in England and abroad.

Furthermore, the England youth level is not the same as most other countries. It is self contained. Virtually everywhere else, the youth team is part of the same football pyramid. Guardiola and Zidane did not cut their teeth with teams of kids playing against kids. They gained experience with a team of kids against full grown men game after game after game.

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Morris does not have that same experience. He is putting his youth against youth from other academies. That is it. And it is incredibly rare for youth success to translate to professional success. Look at any youth team roster for any of the youth World Cups and fast forward five years. How many of those players have actually made it?

Another thing Chelsea’s success comes down to is resources. Few clubs in the world can devote as many resources to an academy as Chelsea. That does not take away from the results and victories at all but, much like the professional game, the club with the most resources tends to have an edge.

This is not to knock what Morris has done. But he is a few levels away from the first team job. Morris has only ever managed youth. That is vastly different than managing World Cup winners and Ballon d’Or hopefuls and wannabes.

What Chelsea could do with Morris (or Edwards for that matter) is promote him to assistant manager of the first team. As it stands, Chelsea lack in type of in house assistant that can carry over season to season. It was in this role that Steve Holland earned the respect of the players day after day. Had Holland been appointed Mourinho’s successor, few of the players would have balked at the idea.

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Morris could and should be in a similar situation. If Chelsea want to hold on to him, they should handle him the right way. Much like the youth that Morris manages, he must be brought up in the right situations instead of thrown to the wolves to be torn apart before he is ready.