Chelsea hire Benfica's Chadd as Head of Performance Services
Nick Chadd: Worked for Manchester City for four years before joining Benfica
Written by Simon Austin —
CHELSEA have hired Nick Chadd from Benfica to become their new Head of Performance Services.
Chadd had been Head of Sports Science and Strength and Conditioning for the Portuguese giants for the last 20 months. Prior to that he worked for Manchester City for almost four years, latterly as City Football Group's Lead Sports Scientist and S&C Coach.
At Chelsea, Chadd will report into Bryce Cavanagh, the incoming Director of Performance who is currently serving out his notice period with England, with whom he was General Manager of Performance and had worked for seven years.
Australian Cavanagh will oversee the entire Medical and Performance department at Chelsea. The West London club are rebuilding the department under their new Sporting Directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley following a number of departures.
First to go was Medical Director Paco Biosca, who had been with Chelsea for 11 years, and Head Physio Thierry Laurent, who had been with them for 15. Jason Palmer, who had been Chelsea's Head Physio for eight years and stayed on as a consultant, then left, as did Senior Physio Jon Fearn in January.
Fearn later said: “Change is good but you don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. You can lose a lot of good and that is the challenge they are having at the moment.”
Other recent arrivals in the department are Tom Farrow, formerly of Wolves, as Physical Performance Coach and physios Fearghal Kerin and Dave Fevre. New manager Mauricio Pochettino has brought in long-time fitness coach Jesus Perez and Sport Scientist (and son) Sebastiano Pochettino.
