Mauricio Pochettino, the former manager of Chelsea has left the club by mutual consent after just one season. Pochettino had signed a two-year contract with the club with the option of a further year in July but was under pressure following an underwhelming first half of the season. Chelsea finished sixth in the Premier League with five successive wins securing their position and were also runners-up in the Carabao Cup and semi-finalists in the FA Cup. Coaches Jesus Perez, Miguel d’Agostino, Toni Jimenez, and Sebastiano Pochettino have also left the club.
Chelsea will now look for a new manager to replace Pochettino and have already expressed interest in Ipswich’s Kieran McKenna, Sporting’s Ruben Amorim, and Burnley’s Vincent Kompany. Pochettino had been seen as the man to mould Chelsea into credible title contenders again after their £747m expenditure on transfers during the 2022-23 campaign. The Argentine also enjoyed a significant budget with over £400m spent on players, including Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson, Moises Caicedo, and Christopher Nkunku. However, Chelsea have spent more than £1bn on transfers since Todd Boehly’s takeover in May 2022, garnering criticism from pundits and commentators.
Pochettino’s departure from Chelsea has come as a surprise to many, as the club had finished the Premier League season strong, with a five-game winning run. However, the situation had been on a knife-edge, with uncertainty behind the scenes. It is unclear what led to the parting of ways between the manager and the club. In reality, co-controlling owner Behdad Eghbali is the key decision-maker at Stamford Bridge and will have been a crucial voice in deciding Pochettino’s fate. He, along with other senior board members, will have been the loudest voices in the room despite support from the squad and senior staff for the Argentine.
Pochettino’s tenure at Chelsea falls just short of 12 months; he felt leaving was the right decision following discussions with senior club officials. Privately, he is understood to have been open to continuing depending on the outcome of the post-season meeting, but also to have aired concerns in the final weeks of his tenure. He addressed booing from some sections of the Stamford Bridge crowd, who chanted the name of former manager Jose Mourinho during a 2-2 draw with Brentford in March. While he appeared to win back some support following some impressive wins throughout the season, including a 6-0 victory against Everton in April and a 5-0 thrashing of West Ham in May, Chelsea did suffer a 5-0 loss at Arsenal in between those two results
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