New Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino is facing the tough task of rebuilding the Blues following their disastrous first season under their new ownership.
The Argentine will be in charge of a club that finished 12th in the Premier League, even though Todd Boehly’s consortium spent more than £550 million on new players.
Pochettino made a name for himself as a manager by getting the most out of small teams at Espanyol, Southampton, and especially during his five years at Tottenham.
In 18 months at Paris Saint-Germain, the 51-year-old won his first two pieces of silverware in his career: the Ligue 1 title and the French Cup. However, he never seemed comfortable dealing with the egos of a team full of stars, and he left in July 2022.
Pochettino’s skills at managing people will be put to the test at Stamford Bridge, where three managers have already failed under the new system.
Thomas Tuchel won the Champions League with Chelsea in 2021. The club’s co-owners, Boehly and Behdad Eghbali of the private equity firm Clearlake Capital, fired him without warning after just seven games of this season.
When the German left, Chelsea was sixth in the Premier League, and few people could have predicted the disaster that would follow.
Graham Potter only played for Chelsea for seven months, even though the club paid more than £20 million to get him from Brighton.
When club legend Frank Lampard came back as interim manager, things got even worse. In his first six games, he led the team to six straight losses.
All three bosses have had to deal with owners who want to help out and teams that are too big.
Thiago Silva, an experienced defender, said last month that the club had to make the locker room bigger so that it could fit more than 30 players.
At the end of the season, there needs to be a big clean-up to give Pochettino a more manageable team to work with and bring back the badly needed team spirit.
Since Chelsea has spent a lot over the past year, he may not have much room to move in the transfer market.
The Argentine faced a similar problem when he was in charge of Tottenham. During his time there, the team beat its odds and finished in the top four of the Premier League four times.
The Blues’ spending is being looked at closely because of rules about financial fair play, but a lot of what they spent was with an eye on the future.
Wesley Fofana, Benoit Badiashile, Enzo Fernandez, Mykhailo Mudryk, Carney Chukwuemeka, Noni Madueke, David Datro Fofana, Malo Gusto, and Andrey Santos are all 22 years old or younger.
People have made fun of Chelsea for giving some of these players eight-year contracts, but the club’s owners are betting that Pochettino’s track record with young players will prove them right.
He did a lot of good work at Tottenham, helping young players like Harry Kane and Dele Alli become well-known on a tight budget.
“I can’t speak highly enough of him. He’s a fantastic manager, a fantastic man,” said England captain Kane, during their time together at Spurs.
“You just want to perform for him, work hard for him, win for him. He’s very passionate. You can tell sometimes he wants to be out there himself, putting in tackles, running about.
“You respond to that. On nights like that, big occasions, you just want to do him justice.”
Before Pochettino was hired, Spurs had only finished in the top four of the English Premier League twice in the previous 24 years.
He also led the team to its first-ever Champions League final in 2019, and since he left, Tottenham has been having trouble, which has made fans want him back.
Given that PSG has been struggling on and off the pitch this season, Pochettino’s reputation doesn’t seem to have been hurt by his lacklustre time there.
If he can turn Chelsea’s oddball group back into a team that can win the Premier League, his reputation as one of the best managers in the world will be restored.
