After an exhaustive process to find a new head coach following the sacking of Graham Potter in April, Chelsea have decided Mauricio Pochettino is their man.
The former Tottenham manager has agreed terms to take charge at Stamford Bridge this summer, accepting the challenge of reviving a club that is enduring its worst season of the 21st century despite investing north of £500million ($626m) on initial transfer fees over the first two windows of Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital’s ownership.
So what lies ahead for Chelsea and Pochettino in the coming weeks as they prepare for a crucial summer? The Athletic answers some of the key questions…
When will Pochettino be in situ?
Chelsea and Pochettino are currently in the process of finalising the details and the paperwork relating to his appointment. That should be completed this week, with Pochettino flying to London to sign his contract and a club announcement confirming his appointment following shortly afterwards.
Do not expect any huge fanfare or unveiling press conference before the summer, though. Chelsea did not do any of that when announcing the appointment of Antonio Conte in April 2016 and feel no urgency to do so with Pochettino this time around, particularly since caretaker manager Frank Lampard is still in post and will remain in charge for the final three league games of term.
The only urgent priority is to finalise the hiring of Pochettino as soon as possible so that he can play an active role in the club’s summer planning.
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What staff is he bringing with him? And what will they do?
As reported by The Athletic on Saturday, Pochettino will be joined at Chelsea by a small, tight-knit backroom team consisting of long-time No 2 Jesus Perez, assistant coach Miguel D’Agostino, goalkeeping coach Toni Jimenez, and his sports scientist son Sebastiano.
Perez has been with Pochettino since his first coaching opportunity at Espanyol more than a decade ago and the pair are close friends as well as long-standing colleagues. A sports science graduate, Perez’s focus has always been on physical preparation, and he has been credited with helping to establish Southampton and Tottenham among the fittest teams in the Premier League during Pochettino’s time in charge of both.
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D’Agostino, a former team-mate of Pochettino’s at Newell’s Old Boys in the 1990s, has also been with the manager since the beginning of his coaching career in Spain. Initially attached to the scouting department, he quickly became the man who assumed responsibility for filming training sessions and overseeing player analysis.
Jimenez played with Pochettino at Espanyol and joined his backroom team at the club after the two men had completed their coaching qualifications together. Jimenez has been publicly credited by Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris for helping to improve the World Cup winner’s physical condition and technique, though his presence at Cobham will raise fresh questions about the future of long-serving goalkeeping coach Hilario. Ben Roberts, Potter’s goalkeeping coach, remains on the staff and is also highly regarded.
Pochettino’s son Sebastiano is the most recent addition to his professional inner circle. A graduate of applied sports science at Southampton Solent University, he became the youngest sports scientist in the Premier League aged 22 when his father appointed him Tottenham’s first team sports scientist and fitness coach in 2016.
Will he retain a ‘Chelsea figure’ in his backroom team?
Chelsea are eager to round out Pochettino’s staff with club coaches, though it is not entirely clear at this stage who they will be.
Supporters will remember an emphasis during the Roman Abramovich era on ensuring at least one internally appointed first-team assistant, particularly to help foreign head coaches adapt to the club and to English football more quickly and easily.
Steve Clarke, Ray Wilkins, Paul Clement and Steve Holland were all beneficiaries of this policy, and in turn made valuable contributions to the triumphs of a succession of Chelsea head coaches. Pochettino’s prior experiences in England with Southampton and Spurs mean his adaptation should be easier, but there is still a desire within the club to maintain a degree of continuity.
There have been suggestions Pochettino will liaise with Lampard. If so, what on?
Pochettino will ultimately make his own decisions about who in the current bloated Chelsea first-team squad does and does not figure in his future plans, but Lampard’s first-hand experience of dealing with individuals at Cobham during this caretaker stint can provide some valuable early insight for the incoming head coach.
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Given his emphasis on physical conditioning, Pochettino and his staff are likely to have already taken note of Lampard’s repeated public assertions that fitness levels within Chelsea’s first-team squad are currently nowhere near the level they need to reach in order to be competitive.
The most important conversations Pochettino is set to have in the coming weeks, however, will be with co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart and co-owners Boehly and Behdad Eghbali to help Chelsea navigate a pivotal summer.
What changes, if any, will Pochettino implement at the training ground?
Pochettino’s primary requirement at Cobham will be the installation of cameras to monitor every training session from a variety of angles.
He and his staff have a video database of every training session they have run since Espanyol, and regularly refer back to footage in order to review their methods and tailor feedback to individual players. Chelsea already have some of the infrastructure in place to facilitate this approach — drones have been in use at Cobham to capture aerial footage of drills for a number of years, for example — but Pochettino’s set-up will have its own specifications.
There have been suggestions that the cameras are also used to monitor player behaviour and body language around the training ground, Big Brother-style, but Pochettino and his staff primarily use their own eyes to make such observations. The point is to gather as much information as possible to help players improve, not to police their every word and action.
Pochettino wants to build a family atmosphere within his squad, and for the training ground to be regarded as more than a place of work. During his time at Tottenham, he helped persuade Daniel Levy to spend a six-figure sum on constructing a barbecue area within the confines of the training complex where players and staff could socialise and relax together.
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There is no suggestion just yet of a similar project at Cobham, and it is likely that most of the changes Pochettino wants to make will not be enacted before the summer.
Will he have a say on transfers?
Boehly and Eghbali are determined to have a collaborative environment when it comes to player recruitment, and the head coach absolutely has a voice in that conversation. Thomas Tuchel was consulted — to his palpable frustration at times — and so was Potter, though it is fair to say that he would not have chosen to add six new first-team players to the squad in January.
Pochettino’s conversations with the ownership, Winstanley and Stewart in the coming weeks will help to shape Chelsea’s strategy with regards to signings this summer. Perhaps more significant, however, will be the influence it has on the club’s efforts to drastically trim a squad that has bloated to unmanageable proportions since January.
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(Top photo: Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty Images)