With Mauricio Pochettino to Chelsea “really close”, according to Fabrizio Romano in today’s Daily Briefing exclusively for CaughtOffside, we thought we’d take a look at how well suited the Argentine is to the huge challenges awaiting him at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues are currently having one of their worst seasons in living memory, sitting 11th in the table with a goal difference of minus-three, and now guaranteed to finish without silverware after being dumped out of the Champions League – a competition they may not be back in for a while.
With a bloated squad full of a strange mish-mash of signings by the trigger-happy Todd Boehly, it’s not clear that even the very best managers in the world could turn things around at Chelsea, and there are reasons to suggest Pochettino isn’t quite in that bracket anyway.
Read on for our concerns about the former Tottenham and Paris Saint-Germain manager as he closes in on the Chelsea job…
No silverware at Spurs
While everyone raves about Pochettino’s time at Tottenham, it’s worth remembering that he didn’t guide the team to any trophies.
And, yes, while plenty of other Spurs managers have also failed this test, most others didn’t have several years of working with the likes of Harry Kane, Christian Eriksen, Son Heung-min and Toby Alderweireld during their peak years.
Pochettino deserves full credit for putting together such a strong team and for getting the best out of those players, but it’s then only fair that we judge him for failing to get them over the line in some of their most important matches.
The Argentine lost both the Champions League and Carabao Cup finals, and also messed up huge opportunities in the 2015/16 title race, and the FA Cup semi-final the following year.
Other managers might not have built that team in the first place, but there are surely plenty who could have come in and taken them a step further. By the end of his reign, it seemed clear Pochettino had taken Spurs as far as he could. He’ll be coping with a lot higher expectations than that at Stamford Bridge.
Underachieved with an amazing PSG squad
Despite boasting the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Neymar, and Lionel Messi, Pochettino actually missed out on the Ligue 1 title in his first season in charge at PSG, whilst also failing to make any progress in the Champions League with this star-studded squad.
Strolling to the title with this PSG side should be pretty much a given for whoever is managing them, so that’s a big red flag, even if Pochettino just about made up for it in his second year in charge, though it still wasn’t enough to save his job.
It’s clear Boehly is going to make big investments in the transfer market for Chelsea, so Pochettino will once again be under pressure to make use of the big names at his disposal.
Looking at his time at PSG, it doesn’t look like this is really Pochettino’s strong point as a manager, so it’s questionable if this is really the right fit for the Blues in their current state.
His style of football isn’t the best
Chelsea fans have put up with some defensive-minded football in the past, with Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte and even Roberto Di Matteo enjoying plenty of success with that kind of approach, but it’s not exactly the kind of style that’s in favour right now.
Manchester City have set the tone with their stylish and expansive possession-based game under Pep Guardiola down the years, and their nearest challengers in recent years, mostly Liverpool, and this season Arsenal, have come closest to toppling them with similarly attack-minded philosophies.
Pochettino isn’t exactly a park-the-bus type like Mourinho, but he won’t be remembered for putting any particularly exciting teams together either, so how long will Chelsea fans put up with that if it doesn’t bring success?
The 51-year-old was particularly uninspiring with his football as PSG manager, when there seemed to be little but individual moments from the likes of Neymar and Mbappe to get the team out of trouble. Needless to say, there’s no one quite like that in this Chelsea squad, so Poch will need a little more.
Issues with managing superstars
Chelsea may not have the kind of superstars that PSG boast right now, but they have plenty of big-money signings with egos and, based on what we’ve seen from them for so much of this season, motivational issues.
At Tottenham, Pochettino was able to work with young players who hadn’t yet achieved much, and got them to the next level, whereas he’ll be expected to quickly get this expensively-assembled squad to gel.
That will be a huge test, and based on what we saw with Pochettino at PSG, it’s not clear if the Argentine really has the CV, or the charisma, to get highly paid big names to run those extra yards for him.
Man Utd & Spurs snubs
Earlier this season, CaughtOffside columnist, Ben Jacobs, spoke about Pochettino’s situation and made it clear that Manchester United considered him before hiring Erik ten Hag. This left Pochettino surprised. It’s also been claimed by football.london that the former Tottenham manager has been open to returning to Spurs, but they’ve clearly decided not to go down that road again – there’s got to be a reason for this.
A manager with Pochettino’s reputation has found it strangely hard to get work since leaving PSG, despite there being no shortage of openings popping up. Of course, Chelsea now seem set to make their move for him, but let’s not forget that they also preferred Graham Potter when both were under consideration after the dismissal of Thomas Tuchel.
Once upon a time, Chelsea would be hiring the likes of Mourinho, Conte, and Carlo Ancelotti at the height of their powers. Even flops like Andre Villas-Boas and Maurizio Sarri were extremely highly regarded when they were appointed by the west Londoners. It does not seem the same is true of Pochettino, whose stock has clearly fallen in the last few years after a difficult spell at PSG, which itself followed a poor ending to his time at Spurs.
All in all, there’s plenty of food for thought here as the chaotic Todd Boehly era continues with a third managerial appointment of the season and little sign of things truly heading in the right direction.
Yet another pundit out of the Keys- O’Hara school
who does not like Poch !
Let’s face it, of the managers who are left in the “draw”, he is the best qualified.
There are no perfect managers-they all have their hang-ups !!
Usual anti-Chelsea from this site
On the contrary I think this is a brilliant & factual analysis save for the part where he queries Poch’s style of play.Though not entertaining it certainly is efficient & attack minded as demonstrated during his tenure at Spurs.But I also don’t see him as a perfect fit at Chelsea.This team already has the personnel that can deliver & need someone who can mould these already seasoned & capable players into a proper team/unit in the shortest possible time.A Zidane type of manager would have bn more ideal.He is currently unattached after all.Or maybe try to get Conte back.it might work since the club now has new owners but who also need to improve in their decision making.