Joe Edwards (born 26 September 1986) is an English professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

who is assistant manager of

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, it is the highest divi ...

club

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Coventry, West Midlands. The club plays in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club is nicknamed The Sky Blues after the sky blue colou ...

. A former Chelsea youth player, he has also had coaching positions with Chelsea, Everton and England U20s.

Playing career

Edwards is a product of Chelsea's youth academy since the age of eight, and worked his way up their youth categories. He was released by the club at the age of 16.

Coaching career

Chelsea

Shortly after being released, Edwards was approached by Neil Bath to join Chelsea's staff in 2004 at the age of 17 and started working on his coaching badges. He initially trained the U8s, and from 2004 to 2014 coached various different youth levels for the club, which also included assisting the likes of

Brendan Rodgers Brendan Rodgers (born 26 January 1973) is a Northern Irish professional football manager and former player who is manager of Scottish Premiership club Celtic. Rodgers began his career as a defender at Ballymena United, where he stayed until h ...

and

Paul Clement Paul Drew Clement (born June 24, 1966) is an American attorney who served as United States Solicitor General, U.S. Solicitor General from 2005 to 2008 and is known for his advocacy before the Supreme Court of the United States, U.S. Supreme Cou ...

. In 2014 he was appointed the manager of the Chelsea U18s and helped them win two consecutive

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...

s - having also won two as U18 assistant - and back-to-back U18 Premier League South titles. In 2016, he was appointed as loan player manager, visiting loan clubs to track the development of different Chelsea players, which also exposed him to a variety of management and coaching styles. On 6 May 2017, he returned to manage the Chelsea U19s and U23s. In 2017, he was also part of the

England U20 England national under-20 football team, also known as England Under-20s or England U20(s) or England Men's Elite Squad, represents England in association football at an under-20 age level and is controlled by the Football Association, the gov ...

s backroom staff that helped them win the

2017 Toulon Tournament The 2017 Toulon Tournament (officially ) was the 45th edition of the Toulon Tournament. The tournament was named after Maurice Revello, who started the tournament in 1967 and died in 2016. It was held in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône from 29 ...

. In June 2017, he earned his pro license. The following season in 2018, he took the Chelsea U23s to the semifinals of the

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Motors, Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English association football, football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and ...

, which still remains the highest placement by a reserve team in the competition. Edwards also guided the U23s to consecutive UEFA Youth League finals, which were won by Barcelona in 2018 and FC Porto in 2019. For the 2019–20 season, Edwards was appointed as assistant manager for the first time under

Frank Lampard Frank James Lampard (born 20 June 1978) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the manager of English club Coventry City. Widely regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time, one of Chelsea's greates ...

, where, despite a transfer ban, the team achieved a fourth place finish comprising a group of young, homegrown players including the likes of

Mason Mount Mason Tony Mount (born 10 January 1999) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Manchester United. Mount began his senior club career with Chelsea, and joined Vitesse and Derby County on consecutive loans bet ...

Tammy Abraham Kevin Oghenetega Tamaraebi Bakumo-Abraham (born 2 October 1997), known as Tammy Abraham, is an English professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for Serie A club AC Milan, on loan from ...

Fikayo Tomori Oluwafikayomi Oluwadamilola "Fikayo" Tomori (born 19 December 1997) is a professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for club AC Milan. Born in Canada, he plays for the England national team. Early life Oluwafikayomi Oluwadamilola Tomo ...

and

Reece James Reece James may refer to: * Reece James (footballer, born 1993), English footballer born in Bacup, Lancashire * Reece James (footballer, born 1999), English footballer born in Redbridge, London See also * James Reece (disambiguation) James Reece m ...

, all of who Edwards had worked closely with in the Chelsea youth ranks. He remained assistant at Chelsea after Lampard was sacked and

Thomas Tuchel Thomas Tuchel (; born 29 August 1973) is a German professional Manager (association football), football manager and former player who is the manager of the England national football team, England national team. Widely regarded as a forward-think ...

was appointed, and was part of the backroom staff as they won the

2020–21 UEFA Champions League The 2020–21 UEFA Champions League was the 66th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 29th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. Chelsea defea ...

and

2021 UEFA Super Cup The 2021 UEFA Super Cup was the 46th edition of the UEFA Super Cup, an annual football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. The match ...

Everton, Chelsea Return, England U20s

In January 2022, Edwards left Chelsea after a 27-year association to be reunited with Lampard at Everton as assistant manager. They arrived with the club four points above the relegation zone and secured survival in the penultimate league match after coming from two goals down at half-time to secure a 3-2 win against Crystal Palace. Lampard and Edwards were relieved of their duties at Everton in January, 2023. In April 2023, he once more returned to Chelsea as assistant under Lampard as he filled in as interim manager. In August 2023, he was appointed as the interim manager for the

Millwall

On 6 November 2023, Edwards was appointed as head coach of

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

club

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Poplar, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east of ...

. In his debut game, he led Millwall to a 4–0 win at

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...

, the Lions' largest away win in the second tier since 2017. Over the Christmas period, the team secured 10 points in 10 days including three straight wins for the first time in over a year and four consecutive clean sheets for the first time since March 2022 as the Lions moved closer to the play-off positions than the relegation spaces. They were unable to sustain that level of results, however, and after a run of seven games without a win Edwards was sacked by Millwall on 21 February 2024, following a 2-0 home defeat by Sheffield Wednesday.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Manager

Chelsea U18 *

: Winner - 2014–15, 2015–16 Chelsea U23 *

UEFA Youth League The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the under-19 teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions Le ...

: Finalist - 2017-18, 2018–19

Coach

England U17 *

Toulon tournament The Maurice Revello Tournament (officially French: the ''Festival International "Espoirs" – Tournoi Maurice Revello''), previously known as the Toulon Tournament, is a Association football, football tournament, which traditionally features invit ...

: Winner - 2017 Chelsea *

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

: Winner - 2020-21 *

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup Association football, football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions: the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's offic ...

: Winner -

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Joe 1986 births Living people Footballers from London English football managers English men's footballers English Football League managers Chelsea F.C. players AFC Wimbledon players Chelsea F.C. non-playing staff Millwall F.C. managers English football coaches Everton F.C. non-playing staff England national football team non-playing staff 21st-century English sportsmen