Chelsea have sacked Mauricio Pochettino, a move that has shocked a lot of people despite the hints in the last few weeks that it could be coming as the uncertainty about his future grew.
The surprise comes from the fact that the Blues were doing well at last in the league, and Pochettino’s departure comes just as he completed the best run of league results we’ve had under the new ownership.
More than in some past sackings, where the coach’s departure has seemed to come in part (or almost entirely) because they’ve lost the dressing room, this is quite the opposite situation. The players loved Pochettino, and made that really clear whenever he was under pressure.
He’s known for his ability to connect with players, and that was essential this year as the pressure rose. Plenty of other coaches would have cracked, but he was able to keep things pretty steady. In the end, it didn’t help him.
A potential new issue developing
All of this means we could see an interesting and unique situation develop where the players start to lose faith in the ownership because of their decisions. Some of these guys have only been here for two years and have seen 3 of their coaches sacked. What on earth must they think of the owners and sporting directors who are picking these guys and then sacking them? Have we ever seen ownership (rather than management) lose the dressing room? It’s not like the players can do much given the contracts they’re on, but it creates a nightmare for morale.
The reaction to the news has already started reaching their social media, and we expect plenty more in the days to come. The first reactions are coming out on social media, with players thanking Pochettino. Of course they’d do this with any manager, but just from listening to them this season you can tell they really mean it this time.
Unless the owners have a real gem of a replacement waiting in the wings (and it appears they don’t!) then this was an incredibly risky (arguably rash) decision.
Players are not robots and, all tactics aside, removing a skipper who had the players’ faith at a time when they were really starting to gel is bound to create waves in the dressing room—especially within a young squad who’s just seen it’s one elder statesman leave.
I’ll wager that we end up with de Zerbi, but it’s not at all clear that he’s up for such a high profile pressure cooker of a job. Graham Potter can certainly attest to the fact that Chelsea FC is NOT Brighton!
Getting rid of Potch is the right move. You can’t spend a billion on players and not get the results you aimed for. Hudson Odoi and Havertz are constant reminders of what a manager with the right nous can achieve. Having Mbappe and Neymar wouldnt make us anymore successful than we are. And having an injury help us see that Enzo and Caicedo dont Gel, which Potch didnt see, brought a desastrous result with Arsenal. Sometimes it takes just one player like Ngolo Kante or Cole Palmer to get everything to fit together correctly. We’ve helped liverpool with Salah, and Man City with De Bruin. Now we need a manager with the right pedigree.
De Zerbi left Brighton because he was unhappy with the squad, he might have a better set of players to work with but might also be too strong willed for the Chelsea owners.
It is a similar situation to Nottingham Forest I guess they got rid of Cooper who was loved by the fans and the fans soon accepted it. But a puppet manager and running the club as a cash machine is not going to maintain the club’s popularity. They do need a better tactician though not a nanny.