Pochettino out: WTF is wrong with Chelsea?

Mauricio Pochettino has left his post as Chelsea manager by “mutual consent” after just one season in charge, the club confirmed in a statement on Tuesday.

The news broke just days after Chelsea secured a sixth-place finish in the Premier League, and comes as a surprise given Pochettino’s role in reviving the club’s fortunes following a 12th-place finish last season. The Argentine had signed a two-year contract with the club ahead of the 2023-24 campaign, but agreed to part ways with the club after meeting with new owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital earlier this week.

While it remains unclear exactly what transpired at these meetings, the decision to cut ties with Pochettino is undoubtedly a huge step in the wrong direction for Chelsea.

What’s the big deal?

For one, Pochettino’s performance this season is not worthy of a sacking.

After a tough start to the season, Chelsea have been one of the best teams in the Premier League in 2024. The injury-plagued Blues were in 11th place as late as February, but went on a tear to close out the season, losing only one of their final 15 league games to secure a spot in Europe against all odds.

The Blues secured a spot in next season’s UEFA Conference League, and could compete in the Europa League if Man City beat Man United in Saturday’s FA Cup final. Tell that to any Chelsea fan back in January and you’d have been admitted to an insane asylum.

What’s stability, anyways?

The second reason Pochettino’s sacking comes a such a shock is it undermines the club’s long-term plans for stability. Since taking over the club two years ago, Boehly and co-owner Behdad Eghbali have spent billions on recruiting young talent to Stamford Bridge.

Their plan is obvious – sign young players bursting with potential to lengthy contracts, hoping that they’ll grow together as a team and prosper in the long run. The problem is that they have lacked patience. Boehly and Eghbali have seemingly overlooked that you need to wait several years for youngsters to reach their peak; Cole Palmer is the exception not the rule.

Secondly, success in the Premier League requires cohesion and teamwork. Familiarity between players is just as important as their individual ability, and that is only going to come with time under one system.

By discarding managers like they’re non-rare Pokémon cards, Chelsea’s ownership is depriving their young players of the chance to collectively learn under one system, and have effectively forced them to restart four times within just two years.

Boehly and Eghbali have reacted unreasonably after a single season that doesn’t even constitute a failure. That is not a winning recipe in the long-term.

What’s next? Pochettino isn’t the perfect coach. Many fans point to his in-game management as a weakness and question his ability to instill an elite mentality in his players. That said, there’s no obvious candidate(s) who can perform equally well in such a difficult job, and Boehly and Eghbali would do well to find an improvement over the Argentine, no matter how attractive the job may seem on paper.