Mauricio Pochettino has laid out a blunt assessment of the upheaval at Chelsea since BlueCo took control, arguing the new direction has altered expectations and hindered short-term results. Now in charge of the USMNT, he discussed those challenges on The Overlap and urged clearer communication between owners and football staff.<\/p>\n
Pochettino warned that the club\u2019s shift from a win-now model to a focus on young, high-potential signings has produced few clear successes so far and left supporters unconvinced. \u201cThey have a plan that is maybe completely different than what was used to be Chelsea in the past with [former owner Roman] Abramovich,\u201d Pochettino acknowledged. \u201cIt\u2019s true that it\u2019s not easy because it\u2019s difficult for people to understand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m thinking about a new project, the most important [thing] is how we can translate and to show what is the plan and what we want to achieve with that and how is going to be the process to arrive where we want to arrive. Sometimes, in football, it\u2019s difficult to explain because people don\u2019t listen. They only listen to results.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then because there\u2019s too many people making the decisions\u2014football is not an ordinary business\u2014sometimes people struggle. They need to explain the plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Supporters have flagged the squad\u2019s youth: Tosin Adarabioyo is the oldest current player at 28, while Marc Cucurella and Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez are 27 and 25. Pochettino said that lack of experience constrained his work in 2023\u201324. \u201cWhat I understood [about the plan] didn\u2019t happen after … and maybe I was wrong,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
He reflected on the progress made under his tenure: the side rose from 12th in the Premier League to sixth, finished the season strongly, reached the Carabao Cup final and lost an FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City. \u201cBut after, when things didn\u2019t match what was our vision, we said it\u2019s better to split and to give the possibility to the club to do what they want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pochettino described how recruitment decisions were often preordained. \u201cWhen we signed, it was already done, all the signings,\u201d Pochettino acknowledged. \u201cI was involved, I said O.K. when we signed [Axel] Disasi because [Wesley] Fofana was injured in preseason, and Cole Palmer. With these two, we were involved in the decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more about a philosophic idea that the coaching staff … we need to be involved. We need to be a part\u2014an important part\u2014of the decisions because, if not, it\u2019s not easy.<\/p>\n
Calling the shots at Stamford Bridge are co-owner Behdad Eghbali, co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart and recruitment chiefs Joe Shields and Sam Jewell. Pochettino urged owners and recruitment teams to balance data and analysis with coaches\u2019 judgement on passion, pressure handling and tactical fit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the moment that we arrived, we completely supported the club in all the decisions that they already made,\u201d he concluded. \u201cWhat happened after, I don\u2019t know. If you accept to go to Chelsea, it is more clear after us, the idea of the management of the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not complaining because it was also my decision to leave the club, but I think to understand the new people that arrive, the new ownership, the new football, the new coaches, the new sporting directors, the new everything, we sometimes underestimate the analog things. ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pochettino: BlueCo’s data-first recruitment, lack of experienced players limits Chelsea’s progress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13559,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1067,190,172],"tags":[1505,1162,808],"class_list":["post-13560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carabao-cup","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-accountability","tag-analytics","tag-axel-disasi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}