Adam Bate Football Features Writer @ghostgoal Friday 2 October 2026 10:53, UK Image: Ed Brand coached Chelsea’s under-18 side and worked with their loan players during 17 years with the club Brand was a player at Chelsea from the age of 10, captaining the youth team and playing for the reserves. An England under-17 international, his playing journey was curtailed in part by a series of concussions but he found a new passion in coaching. He has coached FA Youth Cup winning teams at Chelsea, competed in Europe and worked with some of the best talents in English football. Now 39, he wants his departure to be the catalyst for the next step – and he has clear ideas about football.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Kaveh Solhekol on why Todd Boehly has left Chelsea and what it means for the club Transfer Centre LIVE! | Chelsea news & transfers🔵Chelsea fixtures & scores | FREE Chelsea highlights▶️Got Sky? Watch Premier League games LIVE on your phone📱Not got Sky? Latest Sky Sports deals or stream PL games with no contract📺Brand is a product of Chelsea in terms of how he sees the game, but the flexibility of that philosophy is interesting. It is about playing winning football.
“I would not be happy if we had 73 per cent of the ball and lost without creating anything,” he explains.He knows the words that they want to hear at interview – and he can deliver that. “High-intensity football, with and without the ball, possession-based but with a purpose.” And yet, the lesson of his time at Chelsea was to help the players find their own solutions. “I want to my teams to press with intensity but intelligence.” That means players smelling the game for themselves sometimes too. “If football was that robotic, no one would watch it.
You have got to have players who can make decisions,” he argues. Image: Reece James is an example of the flexibility that Chelsea foster in their young talent “With the ball, I am not one of those coaches who says, ‘this is my philosophy and I do not stray from it.’ That is stubbornness. You should be stubborn around culture. But stubbornness around playing style?
There are too many variables. The game changes.”It all goes back to my Chelsea education. We had so many different ways of playing. If a team are going to give us 50 yards of space in behind, I do not want to take 15 passes to do what we could easily do in two.
I want runners, especially if I have pace up top.”There is pride at the thought that he has played a small part in developing players who have proven themselves so adaptable. “Conor Gallagher can play anywhere in midfield. Reece James is another example. It is all because of their upbringing and exposure.”Brand continues: “Look at Marc Guehi.
He played in midfield for Manchester City the other day. Again, that goes back to the education that he had within the academy, helping him to develop that ability to be able to play in different positions and systems.” Image: Marc Guehi’s adaptability is a trait that he developed as a youngster at Chelsea Chelsea’s loan playersBut it was not just future England internationals like Guehi, Gallagher and James, like Lewis Hall and Tino Livramento, like Levi Colwill and Mason Mount who Brand worked with at Chelsea. Beyond the academy, he had two summers as a loan mentor as well.Managing pre-season for those Chelsea players who were not in the first-team picture can be a challenge for a coach. For Brand, it was an opportunity.
“It was brilliant for my education because I got to plan two eight-week pre-seasons with real senior players.”As a result, it tested the quality of his work but also his man-management skills. These were men who “might not be in the greatest head space” if their careers were not where they wanted them to me. “It was an eclectic group of personalities,” says Brand.He worked with Raheem Sterling and Romelu Lukaku, with Trevoh Chalobah and Ben Chilwell, those at the end and those at the beginning. “Some were excited for their first loan move, others had come back from loan and there were some about to be sold.” Image: Ed Brand taks to his Chelsea under-18 players during a game in 2022 Brand acknowledges: “Most coaches would probably have looked at that situation from the outside and not wanted to touch it with a barge pole.
I went the other way. These were Chelsea players, top players. They deserved the best pre-season they could get.”I wanted those senior players to come away saying they loved it. It was a combination of staff taking it seriously, putting on really good sessions, and senior players buying into it and lifting the standard.” Chalobah set the standards, Sterling drove the competition.
Image: Raheem Sterling worked with Ed Brand’s loan group and his competitiveness shone through “Raheem was excellent. He wanted to win every time in training. Whatever the game you had to be on your toes as a coach. You had to make it competitive because he would pick up on everything.
He is such a winner. Ben Chilwell, he was excellent too.”It was not idyllic, it had its moments and it was a challenge logistically. We had no fixture list. No control of who comes in or goes out day to day.
Suddenly players would leave and the numbers shrink. I would be lying if I said there were not difficult days.”But over the course of a couple of months you could count those days on one hand and from a selfish point of view, it gave me another layer as a coach. You are not going to be walking into many circumstances that are potentially more difficult than that.”Connecting at SwindonHis time at Swindon Town might run it close. Brand tasted first-team coaching during what was ostensibly a secondment there as an assistant to Jody Morris.
“It was massive for me. From a selfish perspective, I loved it. Jody let me lead on a lot of training.”He admits: “It was miles away from Chelsea.” Not that being away from the comforts of Cobham was an issue. “My nature does not care about stuff like that.
It was just about good people working hard. The players were great. It was a brilliant experience for me.”He talks of that period giving him “confidence and belief” that his ideas could translate. “I know I can go into a first-team environment and coach.
If players think you don’t know what you are talking about they find you out but it holds no apprehension now.” Image: Jody Morris was assisted by Ed Brand during their time together at Swindon Town That Swindon dressing room was a mix. “Players forging their way and internationals who had played in the Premier League.” But one conversation with the Wales international Jonny Williams helped to convince Brand that he had lots to contribute.”No matter what job you do, if you work hard and show people you care, I have never known anybody not appreciate that. I remember going through clips with Jonny and he had not done that before. I could not believe it.
This was a guy in his late 20s.”It blows my mind that coaches do not do that stuff for players. Not only is it your job but if you think you are going through a season without a bad patch, you are naive. That is when, if you have credit in the bank, the team are going to get you out of it.”The plan now is to put these experiences of the past two decades into a new challenge. That could be at home or abroad but he wants what any coach wants, a project with clarity and prospects.
“I will do my due diligence because they will be doing it on me.”He talks of “the importance of communication with the sporting director” and how “consistency in culture and behaviour is vital in leadership” but most of all it is just about getting back out onto the grass and putting all that knowledge into practice.”I genuinely want to bounce out of bed looking forward to going into work and thinking about how I can influence things today. That is how my brain works,” explains Brand. “I have done 17 years as a coach at Chelsea. Now I am ready for whatever comes next.” Play Sup
Leave a Reply