Chelsea have parted ways with head coach Mauricio Pochettino after one season, the club announced on Tuesday.
The decision is not surprising because it’s Chelsea but it is somewhat surprising. Following a forgettable season, Chelsea found form towards the end and qualified for the Europa League.
Perhaps the availability of Roberto de Zerbi and Thomas Tuchel makes Chelsea think they can do better than Mauricio Pochettino. However at this point, it’s hard to imagine any manager achieving anything other than more of the same.
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“On behalf of everyone at Chelsea, we would like to express our gratitude to Mauricio for his service this season,” sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley said.
“He will be welcome back to Stamford Bridge any time and we wish him all the very best in his future coaching career.”
It’s almost comforting in a way that Chelsea just continue to be Chelsea no matter what. While the club is a disaster, it does have a collection of some of the world’s best young players. In that respect, Mauricio Pochettino is the ideal manager for Chelsea.
Why wait until the end of the season to sack him when the limits of the team were clear to all during the season? It’s not as if they ever looked like troubling the top four.
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“Thank you to the Chelsea ownership group and sporting directors for the opportunity,” Pochettino said.
“The club is now well positioned to keep moving forward in the Premier League and Europe in the years to come.”
It’s a decision that’s proved unpopular with the players, with Nicolas Jackson expressing his displeasure on instagram. Whoever the new manager is will need to unite the squad somehow.
