Mauricio Pochettino arrives at Chelsea: the secrets of the Argentine coach chosen by the big names in Europe

In the absence of official confirmation from a club full of tickets and problems, Maurice Pochettino will be the coach of Chelsea next season. For the 51-year-old from Santa Fe it will be his fifth coaching experience and the third in the Premier League, where he has already worked southampton AND Tottenham.

Pochettino began his coaching career in January 2009 at the same club where he ended his career in 2006: Spanish. He was named to replace Mané when the team had won just three of their 19 games this season, he was third from bottom in the table Spanish league and was five points short of the staying zone.

“I take the risk and the responsibility. If I’m here it’s because I consider myself qualified to move forward. Tomorrow we have to start thinking about salvation”.he said on the day of his presentation. They more than achieved their goal: with an excellent second leg, in which they won eight matches, drew five and lost six, the Catalan cast finished 11th in the tournament.

The former Argentina international defender spent another two-and-a-half seasons at a club where he was always highly respected, until he was sacked in November 2012 following a weak start to the league, in which his side only managed nine points in the first 13 days. “I feel frustrated and helpless. We are a big family and when things don’t go as we would like, we suffer. When you don’t give results, you have to take responsibility”he admitted on the day of his separation.

He hasn’t been out of work too long, since on January 18, 2013 he was appointed driver of the southampton English instead of nigel adkins. “This is an opportunity that every manager wants. It’s a club with a great past and an exciting future.”highlighted the DT, who took a team that was 15th in the Premier League and the one that only managed to save itself from relegation on the penultimate date of the race.

In the following season the results were much more auspicious: he got off to a great start, finishing third after 11 rounds and although he couldn’t keep pace with the English giants, he finished in a valuable eighth position. This earned him a chance Tottenhamwith whom he signed a five-year contract.

It was exactly five years and a handful of months that the former player of Newell’s, Paris Saint-Germain AND Bordeaux at the London club. In the five full seasons he has held the helm, his side have never dropped below fifth place in the Premier League (they were runners-up in 2016/17 to Chelsea) and even contested, for the first time in their history, a Premier League Final. Champions League: lost 2-0 against Liverpool on June 1, 2019 in Madrid.

Just 171 days after that final, DT was sacked after Tottenham managed just 14 points from their first 12 Premier League dates. “We had many doubts about this change, but the board has to make difficult decisions. The results were disappointing. We have a talented team and we need to give them energy to sign a good season”The president of the club, Daniel Levy, justified himself. The Argentine departed after leading the team in 293 matches, of which he won 159, drew 62 and lost 72.

His last experience was in a complicated bankat the helm of a star team and at another club he had represented as a footballer: Paris Saint-Germain. His cycle began on 2 January 2021, nine days after German Thomas Tuchel was sacked and lasted 17 months, in which he won a French Super Cup (11 days after taking office), a French Cup and a local league.

However, Pochettino was one of many coaches who failed to achieve the goal that PSG has been pursuing unsuccessfully for more than a decade: the Champions League. On his first attempt, he reached the semi-finals and lost to Manchester City. In the second, already with Lionel Messi in their ranks, they said their goodbyes after a very painful elimination at the hands of real Madrid in the round of 16.

Despite having an extra year on his contract, Pochettino was sacked on 5 July last year and this paved the way for the arrival of Christophe Galtier, a man who could not win the Champions League or harmonize a dressing room overflowing with ego. The Santa Fe man left Paris with 84 games to serve (his team won 56, drew 13 and lost 15).

After a sabbatical season, Pochettino will return to the Chelsea ring. Thus, he will be the fourth coach that the Blues since the club was acquired in May last year by the consortium led by the American millionaire Todd Boehly: before the Germans occupied the bank Thomas Tuchelfired in September; Graham Potterlaunched in early April, and Frank Lampardwho led the team until the end of a season in which he was 11th and already knows he won’t play in a European Cup next season.

DT’s first task will be to reorganize a team where the new owners have spent 680 million euros in less than a year, with bad results, and which currently has 32 players. This gargantuan paycheck, which even forced the dressing rooms at Cobham’s training center to be expanded to accommodate everyone, has put the club in the sights of UEFA, which has posted losses of €139m in its latest balance sheet.

According to the British press, the Chelsea management’s idea is to eliminate eight players in the next market and in the choice of names (Mateo Kovacic, Christian Pulisic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Edouard Mendy, Hakim Ziyech are mentioned and Kalidou Koulibaly, among others) would cut Pochettino, who would also ask for the signing of a goalkeeper, a central midfielder to work alongside Enzo Fernández and a centre-forward.

For this new experience, the Argentine coach will have a technical staff at his disposal that has been with him for some time. Your main assistants will be Jesus Perez AND Michael D’Agostinowho have worked with him since his Espanyol days, as well as his goalkeeping coach, Toni Jimenez. The physical trainer will be your child Sebastianwho has a BA in Applied Exercise Science and a Masters in Integrative Biology of Exercise Adaptations for Health and Performance, and joined the group in 2016, based in Tottenham.