Five wins and a draw to end the season was bettered only by full houses at champions Manchester City and runners-up Arsenal. Not enough to snap a train of thought at Chelsea that had some time prior decided Mauricio Pochettino was not the man for them.
It begs the question who might satisfy trigger-happy private equity speculators, who do not do the kind of touchy-feely management offered by the tactile Argentine? If we discount Frank Lampard, who went back on mates’ rates to plug a temporary gap, it appears progressives like Graham Potter and before him Thomas Tuchel do not fit the Stamford Bridge profile either.
Mutual consent was the agreed line between both parties, which means Pochettino understood there was no prospect of ever putting down roots at Stamford Bridge and was happy to take the second year of his contract upfront. Those handshakes between Pochettino and his staff at the end of the final home game of the season on Sunday can now be reinterpreted as the final act of a long goodbye.
The diplomacy extended to the respective statements. Pochettino said: “Thank you to the Chelsea ownership group and sporting directors for the opportunity. The club is now well positioned to keep moving forward in the Premier League and Europe in the years to come.”
Chelsea, of course, wish him well. Moreover he will always be welcome when passing through London SW6. How sweet, a loveless relationship ended with affection.
For the majority of the season Pochettino toiled in mid-table, essentially cutting off the route to Champions League football. This is the expectation at a club that burned through a billion pounds in four transfer windows, ignoring the fact that the Champions League is a cup competition that allows for the odd random variable like Borussia Dortmund making the final with players jettisoned by Manchester United.
Reaching the Carabao Cup final and the FA Cup semi-final as well was never going to be enough when his fate was already decided. Though it is suggested by some that Pochettino’s position was assessed in a post-season review conducted by the club directors, Pochettino dismissed this when speaking about a dinner with Todd Boehly as late as last Friday.
“Was a very nice dinner together,” he said. “I don’t know about a review. My staff are going on holidays. I’m staying in London. My phone is going to be on.”
Chelsea claim they do not have a replacement in mind, which is counterintuitive if the reason for ditching Pochettino was impatience over the rate of progress made by the team. If speed is the ticket it seems odd that they would allow a period of inertia to develop. Then again Roberto De Zerbi is at a loose end after his “shock” departure from Brighton. How long before the dots are joined and De Zerbi is spotted looking for a pad in the leafy Surrey barrio of Cobham?
Or maybe Thomas Frank, situated just a couple of miles west in Brentford, will fall under the Chelsea microscope? Boehly and the consortium of bankers at his side clearly believed that throwing money at Chelsea would guarantee of progress, ignoring the role of process in delivering results.
If good coaching is a function of relationships as much as technical understanding, as Bayer Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso argues, then these take time to develop. By ditching a third full-time coach in two years, it is clear that the Chelsea ownership have not grasped this. The irony is in moving on Pochettino, Chelsea have killed the very harmony that he was beginning to develop and which brought about the best run of results of the season.
Now Chelsea are back to ground zero, whoever comes in is faced with a period of uncertainty until relationships are formed and trust is built. This is not the stock market. You cannot short your way to instant riches.
Tuchel, Potter and Pochettino can’t all have been idiots. Tuchel had won the Champions League at Chelsea a year prior to Boehly’s arrival. Pochettino took Spurs to the final in a year in which he was operating under a club-imposed transfer embargo.
Perhaps the idiots are the ones running the asylum.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/cUg367u
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