Yesterday, Frank Lampard added three more members to his backroom staff at Derby County, with the arrivals of Shay Given, Chris Jones and Stephen Rands at Moor Farm.
They join the already announced Jody Morris as an exciting young management team takes shape.
Lampard has acted quickly to replace Kevin Phillips, Rory Delap and Mark Sale who left Pride Park to join former Rams manager Gary Rowett at Stoke City, whilst Kevin Poole and Kevin Summerfield left the club in May.
The appointments outline Lampard’s star power and ability to attract big names to a side that has been beleaguered in the Championship for a decade, with Chris Jones and Stephen Rands joining from Chelsea and Manchester City respectively.
Jones was first-team fitness coach at Chelsea, and has been in and around the coaching fold at the London club since 2006.
Originally joining the Blues as an academy and youth coach, Jones was promoted into the first-team fold under Carlo Ancelotti.
47-year-old Jones represented England at under-18 level before going into graduate from Loughborough University.
During his 12-year stint at Chelsea Jones worked under big-name managers including Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti and most recently Antonio Conte, giving him a wealth of different opinions when it comes to coaching methods.
Stephen Rands joins Derby from Premier League champions Manchester City, having joined them as a performance analyst in 2012, previously fulfilling roles with Barnsley and Scunthorpe United.
During his time at City, Rands was promoted into the lead performance analyst role whilst under the stewardship of Pep Guardiola.
Joining the Rams with an impressive CV, and also a strong education, graduating from the University of Hull with a degree in Sports Performance and Coaching, Rand is certainly an exciting prospect behind the scenes.
Whilst not household names within the game, the appointment of Rands and Jones will be seen as a coup for Derby, being able to tempt them away from two of the biggest clubs in the country.
Shay Given is the third member of backroom staff announced yesterday, joining the club as head goalkeeping coach, taking over from the departed Kevin Poole who left after Gary Rowett’s departure in May.
The 42-year-old Irishman needs no introduction joining with a wealth of playing experience making over 489 first-team career appearances during his 23 year career, also becoming the Republic of Ireland’s most capped goalkeeper with 134 caps.
Given has an impressive resume and although the Irishman has never coached before, his appointment has certainly garnered positive feedback from Rams fans, and current first-choice keeper Scott Carson, who said he was "buzzing about it", after speaking to Given on the phone yesterday.
The inexperience of the management set-up as a collective has been questioned by a minority of Derby fans, but with a stellar name like Frank Lampard leading the club, a band of exciting, young and ambitious coaches and backroom team, there is a sense of anticipation and excitement in the air around Pride Park.
The Rams have tried experienced managers, the master tacticians, the managers with a close connection to the club, the strict no-nonsense managers, and all have failed to deliver; it’s now the turn of the household name to try his hand at the impossible job of promotion at Derby County Football Club.
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