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.