Pochettino on his mission with Chelsea: There is no patience in football
Argentine Mauricio Pochettino admitted, on Friday, that he had to give everything he had since his “first day” as coach of the English “Chelsea”, pledging to win the confidence of the owners of the struggling London club.
And the Argentine took advantage of his first press conference as coach of “Chelsea”, since his appointment in May, to make it clear that he understood the magnitude of the task facing him at “Stamford Bridge”.
The coach of “Tottenham” and the former French “Paris Saint-Germain” arrives in West London, to find a club in crisis after Chelsea finished last season in the “Premier League” in twelfth place, in its lowest ranking since 1996, despite the huge sums of money. spent by the new owners.
And Chelsea passed 4 coaches last season without succeeding in winning any title, despite spending 550 million pounds on new contracts.
Pochettino faces a difficult task to restore the club to what it was on the competitive level, especially in the “Premier League”, which won its title for the last time in 2017, and he realizes that he must achieve results from day one to avoid criticism.
In his first press conference since his appointment, the Argentine said, on Friday: “In football, there is no patience. It’s hard to wait. If you are at Chelsea, it is not about asking for time, you have to achieve from day one.
And he believed, “Football is about today or yesterday, you cannot talk about the long term. You can’t tell people it takes 6 months (for results). This is not good”.
And he considered, “We have a team that can achieve success. We need to think about winning from day one.”
The key to Pochettino’s success may lie in his ability to deal with the two owners: American Todd Boyle, Iraqi Baghdad Iqbali, and club sporting directors Lawrence Stewart and Paul Winstanley.
“Chelsea” sacked the German Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter, after they lost the confidence of the owners, last season, then the Spaniard Bruno Saltor, and then the team legend Frank Lampard, temporarily took over the task.
According to reports, Pochettino had a difficult relationship with Tottenham president Daniel Levy during the last months before his dismissal in 2019.
His Parisian adventure was not happy at all, as the 51-year-old was dismissed from his mission last year as well.
Pochettino expressed his confidence in the club officials, who “showed the plan, all the good and not so good things that must happen. I am confident that they will provide the tools that enable them to compete.”
The Argentine arrives at Stamford Bridge to find a team that has lost a number of its stars in the past few days, with the departure of Senegalese Khalido Coulibaly and goalkeeper Edouard Mendy, French Ngolo Kante, Mason Mount, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, German Kai Havertz, Spanish veteran Cesar Aspelicueta, and Croatian. Mateo Kovacic, while the two strikers: France’s Christopher Nkunku and Senegalese Nicholas Jackson, were the only newcomers so far.
And he stressed that «the most important priority is to complete the team, to have a very balanced team. In the plan, the club also wanted to reduce the numbers (salaries and the number of players).
Pochettino’s history with London’s “Chelsea” rivals “Tottenham”, in which he spent 5 years and led him to the “UEFA Champions League” final in 2019, led some to expect that the Argentine would be subjected to severe criticism from the “Blues” fans if his team suffered.
But he said that he had no doubts about accepting the task, and admitted that he had a point to prove towards “Tottenham,” explaining, “Always, this is our motive. We try to prove ourselves right, and that’s part of our nature. I am very proud of my past, but now I need to look forward. This is a club that only talks about winning. If you don’t win at a club like Chelsea, you will definitely suffer.
2023-07-07 20:19:00
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