Since dismissing Graham Potter on April 2, Chelsea has been looking for a new head coach. Frank Lampard will serve as interim manager till the end of the current campaign, while former Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has been jobless since being fired by Paris Saint-Germain last summer.
Mauricio Pochettino, the former manager of Tottenham, has signed a contract to become Chelsea’s new head coach.
An announcement is anticipated later this week on the 51-year-old Argentine’s return to the Premier League after being fired by Chelsea’s London rivals Spurs in November 2019. He will succeed interim manager Frank Lampard at the conclusion of the current season.
Chelsea agree deal to appoint Mauricio Pochettino as manager
Sebastiano Pochettino, Jesus Perez, Toni Jimenez, Miguel D’Agostino, and the rest of Pochettino’s dependable backroom crew will all be joining him at Stamford Bridge.
Graham Potter, who was fired at the beginning of April after less than seven months in charge, will be permanently succeeded by Pochettino.
Chelsea is in the bottom half of the Premier League, will finish the season without a trophy, and will not participate in European competition next season despite spending £600 million in the last two transfer windows.
Since being fired by Paris Saint-Germain last summer after 18 months in charge of the French team, where he had led them to the Ligue 1 championship in 2022 and the French Cup the year before, Pochettino has been jobless.
From May 2014, the ex-Espanyol manager headed Spurs for five years; however, he failed to bring home a trophy for the north London side.
He also led them to the 2015 League Cup final, a second-place finish in the 2016–17 Premier League season, and the 2019 Champions League final, which they lost to Liverpool in. Chelsea won both championships.
Paul Gilmour of Sky Sports News responds to the news that Mauricio Pochettino has agreed to terms to take over as Chelsea’s head coach:
“The formal sign-off is still required, but it is anticipated that it will only be a formality now that this agreement has been reached. And it is somewhat strange that the manager is connected to Chelsea’s rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, at least in English football.
“Mauricio Pochettino is aware that the rebuilding at Chelsea would be a challenging task. The team is enormous; the numbers must be significantly reduced.
In addition, Harry Kane spoke this week about the principles established by Mauricio Pochettino, which is, in your opinion, his greatest asset. He has the ability to unite a team of players. He has a strong sense of community and is able to inspire others and make the most of what he has.
“Chelsea have spent a lot of money, but you would anticipate that he would have money to spend as well to fine-tune and add more strength in some spots. But over the past few weeks, it has been evident that he will succeed Jose Mourinho as manager of Chelsea, and it now seems as though Chelsea has found their man.
Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino and Christian Eriksen (background) on the bench during the UEFA Champions League Group B match at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London. Neville: Poch is the right fit for Boehly’s Chelsea.
Gary Neville, a sports analyst for Sky Sports, believes Pochettino is the best candidate to assume permanent leadership at Stamford Bridge considering the caliber of players Chelsea has signed.
Neville stated to Sky Sports in April that Chelsea have completed their expenditures for the next three years, with the exception of adding a center-forward.
“They’ll need an additional £300 million if they hire Zinedine Zidane, Luis Enrique, or Diego Simeone because they won’t like some of the players they’ve already signed.
“They need to choose a manager who will take over and get along with the squad they have; many of them are young, and I believe that man is Mauricio Pochettino.”
There is plenty at stake in the Argentine’s employment, for both parties, even though Mauricio Pochettino will undoubtedly be thrilled to return to the Premier League and Chelsea will be thrilled to have landed a manager of his caliber.
Pochettino’s reputation is still very high in the Premier League, which is unusual for a manager whose previous Premier League tenure ended with his firing by Tottenham nearly four years ago. The Spurs’ decline after his departure may be one reason for this.
However, despite the 51-year-old’s efforts at Spurs, which culminated in their first Champions League final in 2019, he ultimately failed to bring any long-awaited hardware to north London during his five-year tenure as manager—a record that won’t be tolerated at Chelsea.
Pochettino won the French Cup in 2021 and Ligue 1 the following year at Paris Saint-Germain, ending his own trophy drought, but he was also fired by the French powerhouses and has been jobless since last summer.
When Pochettino left Tottenham, Unai Emery was still the manager of Arsenal, and Frank Lampard had just started his first season as Chelsea’s manager. That’s a significant amount of time for an elite coach to be away from the day-to-day operations of club management.
