There is a bullishness to Mauricio Pochettino as he holds court at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Chicago and talks about his plans to turn Chelsea into winners again. The Argentinian is in a hurry, a man whose time at Paris Saint-Germain has taught him never to take anything for granted, and he is not in a mood to make excuses. The aim is to hit the ground running, even though another summer of change at Stamford Bridge has left Chelsea with a squad packed with unproven young talent, and the main focus for Pochettino is making sure his new side are ready for Liverpool next weekend.
“We are building something special,” Chelsea’s head coach says, acknowledging that the club’s recruitment team are in the middle of a major rebuild after the shock of last season’s underperformance. “It’s a process and we need time. But in football you cannot ask for time and you need to deliver now. We are Chelsea and, even if we have young players involved against Liverpool, the mentality is to win.”
It is about raising standards. The message is repeatedly driven home by Pochettino, though doubts remain over whether Chelsea can regain their place within the elite. Chaos has reigned since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital bought the club from Roman Abramovich last year. The spending has been wild under their ownership, they are already on their fifth head coach and Chelsea have a lot of ground to make up after finishing in the bottom half for the first time since 1996.
Pochettino, who has signed a two-year-deal, has not taken on an easy job. When the 51-year-old managed Tottenham, the Chelsea he faced had a dressing room full of hard-nosed winners. There was little continuity under Abramovich but the players always knew how to win.
This generation is different. Chelsea have allowed experienced players to leave this summer and have entrusted recruitment to their sporting directors, Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley. A host of promising youngsters have arrived and Chelsea are light in midfield after a so far unsuccessful attempt to clinch a deal for Brighton’s Moisés Caicedo.
“I’m excited to start something medium- and long-term, but in football you never know,” Pochettino says. “We all need to be together to see if we can develop something special here. At the moment we are only at the beginning of the pre-season. At the end of this transfer window we need to have …” He pauses. “I’m so happy because we are working hard. I know how difficult it is to build a squad to compete with [Manchester] City, Liverpool and company. I think we are in a good way.
“My message to the players, the fans and everyone is that we are Chelsea and we need to win. Today, yesterday, not tomorrow. At the same time we need to work hard and be clever in how we are going to prepare next month, the next six months and the year. We need to have a plan and we need to have a guide that says: ‘We need to arrive there.’ If we arrive before, perfect. But if not we know that we are going to arrive at the destination.”
He is ready for the pressure. Pochettino built at Spurs, turning them into a top-four side and leading them to the Champions League final in 2019. He has seen the Premier League grow more competitive since his emotional exit from Tottenham four years ago. “Evolution is normal,” he says. “Sometimes in different leagues the evolution is slow, but in the Premier League everything is improving in every single area. It’s not just a top six or eight now. It’s a top 20. All the teams have the possibility to improve their squad and have money to spend. Players want to join all of the clubs, including ones who came through the Championship.”
Pochettino, who has brought his trusted backroom staff to Chelsea, considers how he has changed. “We’re older now and when you’re 50 you need to be careful, because your change is quick,” he says. “We got experience in different leagues, at PSG. We are more mature. We always judge ourselves and want to improve. In terms of football we are always moving on, watching and trying to develop different ideas. In terms of management to have the possibility to manage in a different country provides the possibility to have more tools; the way to manage people. We’re much better people now.”
Much has changed since Pochettino, who started his managerial career at Espanyol, replaced Nigel Adkins at Southampton in January 2013. Little was known about him in England but his pressing football quickly made an impact. “Football in the last few years is more to work in this way, to try to play, to be brave and press high. I think technology provided the rest of the world the possibility to learn this type of football.
“Today no one owns the idea to play pressing or a different style. We share the idea. Still, the people who make the difference are the players. We can have the ideas or the methodology or the knowledge about football, but in the end always we need to think the quality of the player is going to make the difference. The players own football, they are the principal actors, and we need to provide them with the best tools. Now it’s not about to press, to play one system or another. It’s that the players buy the idea, that they believe and have enough talent to apply to the games. That is always going to be the key.”
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A shortage of talent was not a problem for Pochettino at PSG. He had a front three of Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi and Neymar but his two years in Paris were unsatisfactory. PSG imploded against City and Real Madrid during the knockout stages of the Champions League and Pochettino left after winning Ligue 1 in his second season. The impression was that his style of play was compromised by the reluctance of Mbappé, Messi and Neymar to work off the ball; the sense was of a manager more comfortable working with hungry young players.
Yet Pochettino is quick to defend his record at PSG. “I think after, with the next coaching staff, it was the same,” he says. “We were able to play the semi-final against City in our first season. We beat Barcelona, when Messi was in Barcelona. We eliminated Bayern Munich and we reached the semi-final in our first season.
“The second season we play a fantastic game against Madrid in Parc des Princes, we deserve two or three goals. We miss a penalty. Then in the second leg I think we deserved much more. One-nil for us – then in a few minutes this mystery happened, the situation in the Bernabéu.”
Stunned by Madrid’s comeback from 2-0 down on aggregate, PSG immediately lost faith with Pochettino. “The club started to think about changing everything,” he says. “City or Liverpool, they lose the semi-finals or the finals, they keep giving the coaching staff the possibility to work for the pre-season. It was many things that you need to understand were impossible.
“We took very positive things from this experience, knowing that when you arrive at a club like PSG it’s about winning the Champions League. If you don’t you need to move on. I hope that changes because I think Paris deserves to be more consistent. You can’t win if you don’t build nothing but bringing names and players. Liverpool won after very good years working hard and being consistent, City the same after seven years with Pep, and Madrid also. In general who wins is the club that is more consistent.”
And so to the task of reviving Chelsea. The new forwards Nicolas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku have looked promising and Levi Colwill, an outstanding prospect in central defence, has signed a new long-term deal. The vibes are good. Chelsea have emerged from pre-season unbeaten, lifting a trophy when they won the Premier League Summer Series last weekend, and Pochettino is pushing his youngsters. No European football means he will have more time to drill them on the training ground this season. It is time to get to work. “We won the Premier League Summer Series,” Pochettino says. “OK, and? Keep going, moving, because we need to win the next game.”