Chelsea Football Club announced on Tuesday night that the club has come to a mutual agreement to part ways with manager Mauricio Pochettino. The term ‘mutual agreement’ has often served as a smoke screen, albeit a terrible one, to mask the club’s decision to fire their manager. However, in this case, it could very well be true and this is yet another blunder for the Todd Boehly regiment.
Mutual agreement to part ways is plausible this time because of Pochettino’s comments ahead of the victory against Nottingham Forest a couple of weeks ago. Pochettino said: “It is not only if the owners are happy or the sporting directors happy… you need to ask us also, because maybe (we) say, ‘We are not happy’, and we accept the situation and we need to split.” But if it is indeed the club’s decision to make this change, then it makes absolutely no sense.
Chelsea started the season terribly under their new manager but turned over a new leaf at the start of the year. Since February 4th, Chelsea suffered just one defeat in the league. The lone defeat came away to title contenders Arsenal. However, during this run, Chelsea managed to beat the likes of Manchester United, Newcastle United, West Ham and Brighton. In other competitions, they also managed to reach the semifinals of the FA Cup, losing narrowly to Manchester City, unarguably the best team in the country.
This run secured a 6th-place Premier League finish, securing UEFA Europa League football. If you offered European football to Chelsea fans a month into the season, they would have bit your arm off for it. And the fact that they were just 5 points off the -top four, is a testament to how good Pochettino has done in turning the ship around after the horrific start. Quite simply, if two results went Chelsea’s way in the first few months of the season, they would be playing in the Champions League next season. Any talk of sacking Pochettino would have been dismissed without hesitation.
The underlying data also support the claim that Mauricio Pochettino was improving things at a brisk pace at Chelsea Football Club. Only four teams in the league scored more goals than them. Chelsea also missed the third-highest number of big chances in the league. Essentially, if they weren’t so wasteful in front of goal, they could and would have secured Champions League football for next season and perhaps done even more.
Club statement: Mauricio Pochettino
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) May 21, 2024
But not everything Pochettino touched at the club turned to gold. The misuse of Levi Colwill as a left black brought down well-deserved criticism on the Argentine manager. What makes this even worse is how poor Chelsea were defensively. The London-based club had the 11th-worst defence in the league as they conceded 63 goals, more than the likes of Brighton, Fulham, Crystal Palace and even Everton.
Players being rushed back from injuries also was a constant source of complaints against Pochettino. The former Tottenham Hotspur manager gained renown for his intense training sessions and reportedly rushed players back to such intense sessions rather than easing them back into it. As a result, players often ended up re-injuring themselves, much to the dismay of everyone at the club.
Enhancements made at Chelsea by Mauricio Pochettino
The biggest praise for Mauricio Pochettino’s stint at Chelsea was the improvements he made in players. Pochettino was always renowned for his ability to develop players having developed the likes of Harry Kane, Dele Alli, and others. It was no different with Chelsea as he developed a lot of players at his disposal and it reflected on the pitch.
Starting with Cole Palmer, the England international was a relatively unknown figure to a casual Premier League fan during his time at Manchester City. But under Pochettino’s tutelage, Palmer announced himself to the world and became a household name after a phenomenal debut season with the London club. The attacker had the most G/A in the Premier League this season (33 G/A) and, the second-most goals and assists in the league with 22 and 11 respectively. Palmer has not only earned himself a spot in this summer’s European Championships for England but will now surely start in the XI as well.
The likes of Noni Madueke and Malo Gusto have also improved under Pochettino’s watchful eyes, while the likes of Alfie Gilchrist, Carney Chukwuemeka and others have all had opportunities to represent Chelsea Football Club.
With that said, there was always hesitation about Mauricio Pochettino and Chelsea, not least because of his links with rivals Tottenham Hotspur. When Pochettino put pen to paper on the deal to become a Chelsea manager, it was a two-year deal with an option to extend for another year. It is a rare sight that managers receive such deals nowadays, but this could very well be only because Chelsea made the past mistake of offering Graham Potter a five-year deal, and we all know how that turned out.
In an ideal world what Chelsea should have done with Mauricio Pochettino is to let him continue developing these players. There was an uptick in form and these players are only going to get better with time. Allowing them to grow with Pochettino should have been the goal. Until they were on the precipice of their prime years. At that point, the club would bring in a bonafide winner and go on to dominate their competition and win silverware.
That was not to be as Chelsea sacked Pochettino just one year into the job. Another day, another blunder by Todd Boehly and Co.
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