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The former midfielder is back at Stamford Bridge as assistant to Frank Lampard and is enjoying seeing more youngsters follow a path he once took
The faith being shown in exciting academy graduates such as Tammy Abraham and Mason Mount is making Chelsea “a lot of people’s favourite second team”, says Jody Morris.
The Blues were left with little choice but to look in-house for inspiration during the summer of 2019.
Having been stung with a two-window transfer embargo and seen Maurizio Sarri head back to Italy at Juventus, those at Stamford Bridge found themselves at a crossroads.
Club legend Frank Lampard was brought back to west London in a first Premier League managerial post, while a number of talented youngsters were handed prominent senior roles.
That faith has been rewarded, with Chelsea still inside the top four and through to the last-16 of the Champions League, while an attacking brand of football has earned them many admirers.
Assistant coach Morris told the club’s official website: “We’re almost becoming a lot of people’s favourite second team now because of the amount of young English players that have been getting opportunities.
“I’ve always been a massive advocate for playing young players but they have to be good enough, they have to pull their weight and be professional, they have to want to play for Chelsea and put the hard hours in.
“If you have an academy like ours, why would you not look at the ones that are good enough?
“Thankfully, the way we raise the young players here, they’ve come over and wanted to grab their opportunities, hence why there have been so many debuts and so many minutes given to the home-grown players this season.”
Morris once trod a similar path himself, with the former midfielder still holding the record as Chelsea’s youngest-ever Premier League debutant – at 17 years and 43 days old.
Plenty have come close to re-writing the history books, including Ethan Ampadu and Callum Hudson-Odoi, but nobody has dipped below Morris’ mark.
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“I’m surprised but just really proud of it – I’d love for it to stay there forever,” he added.
“I know I didn’t make ground-breaking news as a player at Chelsea but I’m proud of the fact that I’m a local lad. I did manage to come through at a time when it was very difficult and I managed to play a decent amount of games, even if I feel it should have been more.
“To hold any type of record at a super club like Chelsea is something I’ll always be proud of and it’s incredibly special to me. It’s something I’ll always hold dear, even if it is eventually broken.”
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