Opinion: Pochettino is on a hiding to nothing if he takes over at Chelsea

Posted Sunday, April 30, 2023 by Caughtoffside.com

If rumours are to be believed, Mauricio Pochettino will soon be announced as the new manager of Chelsea Football Club.

Most outlets are reporting on such a scenario including Sky Sports but the former Tottenham Hotspur man is almost certainly on a hiding to nothing if he were to take the job.

As The Athletic report, there are a number of problems behind the scenes at the club, not least the size of the first-team squad which is believed to be the largest in the Premier League by a distance.

There's no suggestion that the problems are insurmountable or that Pochettino won't be able to deal with them, but the question the Argentinian really needs to ask himself is whether he wants to move to a club, in Chelsea, that look completely directionless at the moment.

Though owner Todd Boehly's intentions may be admirable, the American doesn't appear to have endeared himself to the club's supporters or the team, despite ploughing millions into the club.

Transfermarkt note that in the past two transfer windows, €611m/£541m has been spent on new players.

That shouldn't give him the right to go into the dressing room though, and certainly not during a game as apparently happened when Thomas Tuchel was manager, per talkSPORT, and which is believed to have led to the German's sacking after his blanket refusal to allow the owner and his family in behind those closed doors.

A knee-jerk sacking of Graham Potter just when he appeared to be getting things right, the appointment of Frank Lampard who has been an absolute disaster, and the frankly ridiculous statement that Chelsea were going to beat Champions of Europe, Real Madrid, 3-0 in their Champions League first-leg….

For someone as serious about football as Mauricio Pochettino appears to be, this doesn't seem like the right move for him and he could live to regret it.