This weekend’s Chelsea result was the last straw for a lot of fans. One by one, the fanbase is turning on Mauricio Pochettino as a coach.
But all of the briefings coming out of the club, from high to low, indicate he’s going nowhere. He was given a two year contract for a reason – it won’t be too expensive to sack him this summer. But it will be embarrassing for those who appointed him less than a year ago, and even more embarrassing for the ownership who would be sacking a third manager in two seasons in charge.
TeamTalk’s Fraser Gillan says that “sources” have told him Pochettino is still safe, and that his situation will only be “reassessed” in the summer.
Mark Ogden of ESPN goes even further, saying that the club will try to give their coach the start of next season to do, in the hope that he can turn things around:
“Pochettino has probably got another season, or at least the start of the next season,” Ogden told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Football Daily podcast.
“He only has a year left on his contract so the compensation would not cost a lot, but Chelsea have posted big losses so in an era where clubs need to keep losses small, they cannot afford to pay him off.
We have no reason to disbelieve any of these briefings at this point. The ownership and sporting directors are clearly going to do everything they can to hold out at least until the end of the season, and every game that passes makes that a more achievable goal, even if it is a frustrating result.
These shocking games against the likes of Burnley and Sheffield United are making it less likely that Pochettino survives long term, but not really affecting his ability to make it to the end of the season. Now we’re so close, those in charge would rather help their own PR by not making a move early.
Let’s face it, there’s a significant portion of the fanbase who have never seen a problem that couldn’t be fixed by sacking the manager. Concede leads and ultimately draw to Burnley and Sheffield United…sack the manager! Lose a cup final in extra time…sack the manager! Stub your toe…sack the manager!
Can anyone name the last Chelsea manager to make it longer than 4 years? John Neal, 1981-1985!!! Nearly four decades ago!
It became such a knee-jerk reflex during the Abramovich years that we went through 14 managers in less than 20 years. That’s not counting the handful of games overseen by interim managers like Ray Wilkins and Steve Holland and it still comes out to an average stay of less than 18 months! How is it possible to build any continuity or sustained excellence under those circumstances??? And before you come back arguing that “Well, but look at the trophies,” I’ll highlight that relatively few of have come in the last ten years. Indeed, it’s been only 2 league titles (the most recent back in 2017), one FA Cup, one League Cup, one Europa League, and one Champions League. That’s a measly 6 major trophies compared to 11 in the previous ten years, a nearly 50% drop off!
The point is, this fetish many Chelsea supporters have with sacking the manger comes at a cost. The simple fact that seven of the 17 major trophies we’ve won in the last 20 years came under a single manager—Mourinho—helps to illustrate how relatively fruitless all of those other changes were! Might we have been far better off had we just stuck with Mourinho for a decade instead of hiring and firing seven other men in between his first and second stint?! And of the managers we’ve had since, Antonio Conte (who boasted a 65% winning percentage) probably would have outperformed the three men who have followed had we just shown the patience to stick with him. Goodness knows we haven’t challenged for a league title nor won a league cup since he won both the league and an FA Cup.
So, sure go ahead and call for another entry in the endless list of Chelsea sackings, but just don’t act like it’s a path to increased success when our history shows the opposite is a more likely outcome.