Sky Sports had a shortlist of what they called the “6 leading candidates” to take over at Chelsea after Mauricio Pochettino’s sacking. But we have major doubts about how likely it is that each of them joins, for various reasons.
Already we can pretty confidently rule out a few of this group. Sebastian Hoeness has already been distanced from the job by Fabrizio Romano for example.
In the case of people like Kieran McKenna and Enzo Maresca who have just been promoted from the Championship, you’ve got coaches totally inexperienced at the top level. They may also be reluctant to take the huge risk of leaving the project they’re currently doing so well with.
Roberto De Zerbi managed to fall out with the owners at almost every job he’s had, and we can’t see Chelsea taking a risk on an explosive character like that.
Ruben Amorim is more experienced than some of these other options, but his star seems to have faded in recent weeks. Some sources are saying he’s not in contention at all.
Thomas Frank is 50 years old, and there are doubts about whether he really play the sort of dynamic football we clearly want.
What are the chances we actually end up with none of these 6? Pretty worryingly high we would think.
You can see their analysis in the clip embedded here:
The six leading candidates to take over at Chelsea 👇 pic.twitter.com/UV8f7OIPof
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) May 22, 2024
A disaster already unfolding
The club’s priority is to get a new man in the door right away. Every day wasted is a loss. But as you can see above, each of these candidates has major issues. We’ve already seen mega club Bayern Munich knocked back in their manager approaches in the last month. We could face similar issues.
The question you’ve got to ask yourself is which of this 6 actually represent a major upgrade over Pochettino.
If these are the only choices I’d take the former member of Pep’s staff every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
But this list is frankly a bit of a joke. The fact that a rising star like Thiago Motta isn’t on it just goes to show how artificially narrow the search is. Focusing on managers who’ve won their sides promotion from lower English leagues as opposed to those who’ve achieved real success in top European leagues isn’t particularly smart in my view. There’s a world of difference between the Championship and the EPL and there’s little evidence that success in the former equates to success in the latter.