Chelsea promote Reece James and Mason Mount’s 57-year-old mentor to first-team role

Chelsea promote Neil Bath, mentor of James and Mount at the academy, to first-team role

According to the Evening Standard, Chelsea have promoted Neil Bath, who was the mentor of Reece James and Mason Mount at the academy, to a role in the first team.

The 57-year-old will now become the director of football development and operations. He will now have a seat in the decision-making revolving around the progress of the first team.

Bath was the academy manager at the club for 20 years between July 2002 and November 2022. He was the youth coach at Cobham for nine years between July 1993 and June 2002. So, his association with the club has lasted 29 years so far, all of it coming at the academy level.

The Englishman has a growing influence in the club under the new ownership. He was a massive help to co-owner Todd Boehly, who was an interim sporting director during the summer transfer window, in the ins and outs of the players.

Bath was a mentor to James and Mount along with a host of top talents the Chelsea academy has produced in the last decade or so.

The duo hasn’t done too badly since graduating from the Chelsea youth to senior team. Not just that, both are important players in the England setup as well and it is a shame that James isn’t part of the Three Lions squad in Qatar due to injury.

The Blues have hired quite a number of people in the ‘transfer think-tank‘ to set up a good foundation of the backroom staff working behind the manager Graham Potter. Paul Winstanley was announced on Tuesday as the Director of Global Talent and Transfers. Laurence Stewart, Joe Shields and Kyle Macauley are also part of this team.

There is a possibility that a new sporting director would be appointed very soon, with RB Leipzig’s Christopher Vivell among the front-runners. It seems that step-by-step, Chelsea’s backroom staff is taking shape under new ownership.

More Chelsea News:

• Chelsea and Arsenal join the race to sign Manchester United winger Alejandro Garnacho
• Brentford striker Ivan Toney among four attackers on Chelsea transfer wishlist
• Chelsea coach Graham Potter is not interested in signing Cristiano Ronaldo

We’re without a win in our last five league games, so maybe we can chalk it down to this being a season of transition. Top four, however, seems like the minimum no matter what keeps happening off the field and behind the scenes.