Being released by an Academy at the age of 16 is a crushing disappointment for any budding young footballer, but it doesn’t have to be the end of the road.
Just ask Joe Edwards.
Now 36, the former Chelsea Academy prospect is a shining light in the world of coaching, somebody who found an alternative pathway to the very highest level of the game.
With almost 20 years’ worth of experience under his belt already, his unique journey to the Premier League will have inspired many others to follow suit.
It all began with a call from Neil Bath, Chelsea’s Under-16s head coach and assistant academy manager at the time - the man who had to tell Edwards he wasn’t being kept on at Stamford Bridge.
Bath, who went on to become the club’s long serving and hugely successful head of youth development, had heard via a family friend that his former player was ‘feeling a little bit lost’ post-Chelsea, and kindly reached out to see if he could help.
New opportunities
From that conversation onwards the 17-year-old never looked back.
Within weeks he had enrolled on a college course suggested by Bath, taken his Level 1 coaching badge, and was helping out with the Under-7s and Under-8s at one of Chelsea’s regional development centres.
Impressed by his enthusiasm and application, at 19 Edwards was offered a full-time position at Chelsea’s Academy, coaching the younger age groups.
Inspired by the organisation, attention to detail and work ethic he saw from senior Academy coaches such as Brendan Rodgers and Paul Clement during that period, the fledgling coach threw himself into his new career.
Adopting an ‘older brother figure’ approach to his relationships with players (because of his age) but determined to maintain the organisational standards set by Rodgers and Clement, a steady but extraordinary rise through the Cobham ranks followed.
Trophy triumph
That progress eventually saw Edwards lead Chelsea Under-18s to FA Youth Cup glory in 2015 and 2016.
At the time he was only in his late 20s.
Next came the transition to senior football, beginning in the 2016/17 campaign when Edwards took a year’s sabbatical from coaching to become one of Chelsea’s loan managers.
Having spent most of his life either playing in, or watching Chelsea’s youth or first-team matches, he looks back on this period as enlightening and beneficial to his footballing education.
Taking up the story, Edwards has one very clear recollection that has stayed with him.
“I went to watch one of our central defenders who had won the FA Youth Cup twice make his Championship debut, and he got absolutely battered," he says.
"They just sent goal-kicks at him for 90 minutes and I remember thinking, 'he's had more aerial duels to compete with in this game than he’d have had in a six-week period in our program.'
“I thought, I can't change the fixtures, I can’t change what games look like at Under-18 or 23 level, but what I can do is expose our players to more ‘real-life’ stuff in training.
Different approach
“So, when I went back into Cobham as the Under-23s coach, I made a conscious effort to balance my sessions, and to sometimes almost rough it up a bit on purpose to give our players a broader range of coaching.
“If we were sending our players out to the Championship or League One on loan, expecting them to stand out, I had to expose them to a lot more than what we had been doing.
“Being out there watching non-Chelsea games taught me so much.”
Edwards’ first taste of senior football as a head coach was in the EFL Trophy, where he led a talented Chelsea Under-23s side to the semi finals; the furthest a Premier League Academy side has got in the competition.
A team containing Reece James, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Trevoh Chalobah and Ethan Ampadu were bombarded by long balls, corners and long throws, and left bruised by the super-physical approach of their opponents.
Played out in front of a sell-out Sincil Bank it was a style clash for the ages that ended in a 1-1 draw, before the Blues eventually lost 5-3 on penalties.
Remembering that night with fondness Edwards says, “I'm a competitive person, so normally I’d be absolutely gutted to miss out on a Wembley final, but I looked at our players in the dressing-room and said I’ve never been more proud of a group for the way they stood up to the test. I meant it. It was incredible.
“From an Academy perspective I can’t speak highly enough of that competition. Some boys are in the programme for 10 years or so, which is a decade of something that looks very similar.
“I lived that experience for two years and on so many occasions the players said to me, ‘wow, that was tough, that's what it's really like out there’ and I guarantee they'll remember some of those EFL Trophy games as much as they did playing against teams like Barcelona.”
Stepping up
In the summer of 2019, Edwards – who had once dreamed of playing in the Premier League – was named as one of Frank Lampard’s first-team coaches at Stamford Bridge.
It was an appointment that effectively saw him complete the full set at Chelsea, having started out with the Under-7s.
The timing also seemed perfect for Edwards to step up.
With a transfer embargo in place, Chelsea’s policy was to introduce more academy players into the first team.
As somebody who had built excellent long-standing relationships with the likes of Hudson-Odoi, James, Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori and Tammy Abraham, Edwards' presence added instant value.
Having known Tomori and Abraham since they were eight, the players also had someone on the coaching staff who was more than happy to champion their cause.
“I remember one night away at Ajax in the Champions League, watching Mason, Fikayo, Callum and Tammy stood together on the pitch, smiling and taking it all in before the game & thinking to myself ‘this is what we’ve all been waiting for’.
“It was a special moment,” he says with a smile. “There were no nerves. They weren't in their shell. They were absolutely ready for it, and I couldn’t have felt more pride.”
Having worked exclusively in the Academy system until this point, it was a new challenge for Edwards to coach experienced Chelsea first teamers on a daily basis.
Did his session plans have to be adjusted for those senior players?
“When you coach young kids, you're educating them around different aspects of the game, which allows you to build up in components, or to focus on one area," Edwards explains. "You can put a lot of constraints or rules in to make sure it all hones in on a particular skill.
"I have always demanded a real high intensity and competitiveness in my sessions, which should provide more than enough stimulation, no matter the level"
“The main difference when coaching experienced professionals is that if your session comes too far away from what the actual game looks like, then you can get a reaction from some that’s, ‘what's the point of this?’ And I completely understand that.
“If you catch yourself including drills that are just drills, or introducing too many constraints that are not match-related, it doesn’t always work.
Selective information
“That said I have always demanded a real high intensity and competitiveness in my sessions, which should provide more than enough stimulation, no matter the level. I also try to keep most of the stuff relevant to games.
“As a first team coach I also tried to only give the players information which they will feel is important. That’s the key.”
Chelsea had a strong campaign under Lampard, claiming a top-four finish and reaching the FA Cup final, but midway through 2020/21, the Stamford Bridge icon was relieved of his duties.
“I'd seen a lot of managers get sacked at Chelsea, but when Frank, who was now a good friend of mine who had been great to me, was sacked and I was told I was staying, that was an incredibly difficult thing to go through” admits Edwards.
“Thankfully Thomas Tuchel was very welcoming to me though, and I saw it as another great opportunity to learn from a world class coach and a top guy.”
By the end of that season Chelsea had won the UEFA Champions League under Tuchel, beating Manchester City 1-0 in the final.
It was an unforgettable pinch-me moment for Edwards, who had been part of the club in some capacity for 17 consecutive years.
Moving from Chelsea to Everton
Eight months later he made ‘the hardest decision of my life’, and that was to leave his boyhood club for a reunion with Lampard at Everton.
The former England midfielder offered Edwards the coveted assistant manager’s role, and with next to no time to dwell on the enormity of his decision, he suddenly found himself starting a new life on Merseyside.
Looking back on that call, Edwards says, “I always felt challenged at Chelsea but given it was my club, where I'd grown up, I’d been there my whole life. I’d never had to move house, the challenge of stepping out of my comfort zone to join another big football club in a senior role was something I just couldn't turn down. In addition, I’d always wanted to get another opportunity to work with Frank again.
"Being one seat down, closer to the manager on a match day, you are the one that's got to step up alongside him on the touchline and help make those key decisions"
“Being assistant manager wasn't a major difference day-to-day, but being one seat down, closer to the manager on a match day, you are the one that's got to step up alongside him on the touchline and help make those key decisions. I wanted to taste the extra responsibility, and I'm delighted that I did.”
Walking away from a team which had just won the UEFA Champions League for a club fighting to preserve their top-flight status, presented scenarios that were understandably new to Edwards.
Many of those more testing moments came when dealing with players’ confidence.
Bigger responsibilities
“At Chelsea, there were bumps in the road, but most of the time people bounced back into work the next day with a view of ‘OK we park it, let's go again’ because we knew we were a strong side.
“With Everton, we [the coaches] were the ones who had to go in every day and keep the belief, breathing positive energy into people. I felt a bigger responsibility to do that than I'd ever had before.
“We had to stick together,” he continues. “As coaches though, encouraging the players was never going to be enough on its own. We also had to give them the relevant work in training, and the right information to help them get through it. That is a different type of pressure.”
Points were always the priority, but Lampard, Edwards and fellow first-team coaches Clement, Ashley Cole and Chris Jones were also determined to implement a playing style that could help further improve Everton.
A balancing act had to be struck, but this was not easy according to Edwards.
“Through our sessions we had to give the team what it needed to stabilise results and confidence, but we were always conscious of making sure the players had enough confidence to try and move things forward tactically as well," he says.
“The game we refer back to earlier on this season was Crystal Palace at home which we won 3-0. The style of football we played that day, the shape, the movement, the energy, all of that was what we were aiming for.
“When you're down there looking over your shoulder, some games are going to require a certain way of playing, but we always wanted the players to grab onto something they could see moving forward, a more enjoyable way of playing.”
All change again
Just eight days shy of a year in their roles, having helped Everton stave off the very real threat of relegation in 2021/22, the Toffees relieved Lampard and his coaching staff of their duties.
It was the first time in Edwards’ career that he had been sacked, and a couple of months on he remains out of work.
Does he regret leaving Chelsea?
“No. I absolutely don't regret it. I feel so much stronger and better for it,” Edwards says with clarity. “When the call comes and you realise what you worked so hard on is now over, there’s a huge disappointment, of course. But now I can sit back, reflect, and digest it, I do realise how much I took from the experience.
“I still think we did do a good job in a lot of ways. It was a really tough environment that we walked into, and we kept the boys up. As a coaching staff I also think we did a good job of adapting to a different way of playing than we were used to.
“After I left Everton I received so many texts from players and staff saying how much they enjoyed working with us as people, and how much positivity we offered to the dressing room environment. That will always mean a lot to me.”
Looking ahead
At 36, the future undoubtedly remains bright for Edwards.
His CV would fill a coach 20-years his senior with pride, so plenty of attractive job offers are set to come his way.
“I don’t have a clear plan of what will come next, or when I want it to be, but I know I will strive to constantly learn and improve. They are the things I can control.
“Ultimately, I would love to be a manager, and I would love to manage in the Premier League,” he admits. “It's what I know from working as first team level, and it's been what I've watched my whole life.
“I would never expect it, but one day I would love to do it.”
