Mauricio Pochettino Faces Make Or Break Season With Chelsea

Insights into Mauricio Pochettino’s state of mind since becoming Chelsea FC manager have been sparse, to say the least.

Nearly a month has passed since the former Tottenham Hotspur boss was announced as manager but a public airing of his thoughts has not yet taken place.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised, the process for his becoming manager was extremely drawn out, we all knew it was happening yet time ticked on and on before the news was confirmed.

But even in the official statement that was released, the manager failed to deliver even a 150-word boilerplate quote.

ADVERTISEMENT

We were left instead with a co-authored line by Chelsea’s joint sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley, saying: “Mauricio’s experience, standards of excellence, leadership qualities and character will serve Chelsea Football Club well as we move forward.

“He is a winning coach, who has worked at the highest levels, in multiple leagues and languages. His ethos, tactical approach and commitment to development all made him the exceptional candidate.”

A whopping five senior figures, Todd Boehly, Behdad Eghbali, José E. Feliciano, Mark Walter and Hansjörg Wyss collaborated to state: “The sporting team conducted a diligent and thoughtful process that the Board is proud of.

ADVERTISEMENT

“We are delighted that Mauricio will be joining Chelsea. Mauricio is a world-class coach with an outstanding track record. We are all looking forward to having him on board.”

There is a logic to keeping Pochettino away from the media ahead of his official start date of 1 July 2023, much is still to be decided.

It’s been well-documented that the club has enough senior professionals to fill two starting 11s so a significant amount of surplus talent needs to be shifted.

In this scenario having a new coach entangled with so many legacy issues is far from ideal.

But make no mistake, the pressure on Pochettino to succeed is higher than its ever been.

If he fails the chances of him getting another elite job are limited at best. So this next season will be crucial for both coach and club.

ADVERTISEMENT

Pochettino: A False Prophet?

It’s hard to think of a coach who commands such a strong reputation despite having a sparse trophy cabinet.

Indeed, until his brief spell at Paris Saint-Germain, Pochettino’s list of titles was completely bare. Yet he was still regarded as one of the most impressive coaches in world soccer.

Much of this had to do with his Tottenham Hotspur team in the 2015/16 and 2016/17 seasons.

He took what was essentially a good but not elite side and made them one of the best in Europe with almost no money.

ADVERTISEMENT

Spurs fans are often mocked for sharing it, but a combined table for those two years shows the club acquired substantially more points than anyone else in the Premier League in the same period.

Not only did the club win a lot of games, they played exciting attacking soccer with a set of players as impressive as any in the division.

As Dave Tickner of Football365 puts it: “There was just so, so much to enjoy about that Tottenham team. They were glorious to watch.”

He added: “There was no weak link. The Vertonghen-Alderweireld alliance was at the peak of its magnificent Belgian powers. Danny Rose and Kyle Walker were the division’s best full-back combination by a wide margin, Mousa Dembele could neither be passed nor dispossessed, [Cristian] Eriksen was supreme in the playmaker role, while Dele [Alli] and [Harry] Kane were somehow, inexplicably, even better.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Although their league form faltered the following campaign Pocchetino guided the club to a Champions League final, an achievement which would have been unthinkable when he first took the reigns.

What made this all the more impressive was the lack of spending from the club.

Famously Tottenham Hotspur made no signings in the summer of 2018, the year it reached the Champions League final, and the cumulative table it tops over two campaigns shows a net spend of just $9 million.

But, ultimately, it was a fruitless period. The most brutal critics will say no matter how impressive the soccer, improvements in players or overachievement on modest spending the lack of title will see that melt away.

ADVERTISEMENT

Indeed, Pochettino is already facing the same accusations he is an overhyped media darling before life at his new club has even begun.

In an opinion piece titled ‘Chelsea boss Pochettino’s reputation writes cheques his abilities struggle to cash’ chief sports writer at the Daily Star Jeremy Cross demonstrates this view succinctly.

“It doesn’t seem to matter he’s the Tottenham cast-off now heading across town to manage Chelsea,” he wrote.

“That he won zero trophies with Spurs. Or that Pochettino managed to claim just two trophies with Paris Saint-Germain before getting sacked, despite having Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe at his disposal […]

“Pochettino has a certain charm about him and it enables the Argentine to get some members of the media eating out of the palm of his hand.”

Even if we are to accept that was historically true, it is unlikely Pochettino will be afforded the same grace in delivering beautiful failure with an expensively assembled Chelsea team.

ADVERTISEMENT

Should the Argentinian falter, his career will take some rebuilding.