Mauricio Pochettino’s latest column on the Chelsea website is full of some quite remarkable hot air.
Trying to answer questions about the work he and his coaching staff are doing to change the squad’s fortunes, he used his arrival time at the training ground to prove a point. Although given the length at which he went on and the detail he went into, we’re not sure sure what he was trying to prove:
“When I was at Espanyol, my first experience as a coach, I was in at 7am at the training ground every morning. Then I moved to Southampton and was there at 6.30am every morning. At Tottenham, I was in at 7am or 7.30am.
“At Paris Saint-Germain, it was 6am. Here at Chelsea it is 6.40am or 6.45am – and you can ask the guys at security! I’m not going to change because after 15 years my motivation and passion is still football.”
So… does that mean he doesn’t care about his training at Chelsea (6.45am or 6.40am) as he did at Southampton (6.30am) or PSG (6.00am)? And if he was arriving at Tottenham (7.00am or 7.30am) later, and yet having the most success, should he not be considering a lie in more often?
In any case, we’re real believers in “work smarter, not harder.” You can arrive at 5am if you want, if you’re not getting anything done, there’s no point. The results of his work are what fans care about, not the quantity of it.
It is an extremely difficult task to form together so many new young players into a coherent winning group, all while dealing with the pressures of the Premier League. That is without doubt. His friendly manner and constant desire to take pressure off the players can lead to the impression that he takes it easy on them behind the scenes too, but he insists that he “keeps pushing [himself] and [his] coaching staff because [they] want to win and be competitive.”
Let’s hope we see some results of that tonight.
As usual, SuperFrank taken Poch’s comments out of context so that he can use them to fit his pre-determined narrative—to tear down Mauricio Pochettino. It’s the worst sort of “journalism” and it’s not helping anyone, least of all the club, for SuperFrank to be using his platform to unfairly malign the manager.
Pochettino’s comments were part of an interview in which he discussed how the players must not ease up in the work rate and constant effort to improve just because they’ve reached a “big club” like Chelsea. The quotes SuperFrank has taken out of context were merely Poch’s effort to illustrate to the lads that, just because he’s been at a manager at big clubs before, he can’t grow complacent and start cutting his hours at “the office.”
For SuperaFrank to take this and try and turn it against Poch with his totally disingenuous “work harder not smarter” quip is frankly pathetic. Just another sad case of Chelsea News faithlessly and dishonestly undermining the club they claim to support.