Who will the next permanent Chelsea manager be?

[Michael Tucker]

52 minutes ago, McCreadie said:

No-one has any problem with different opinions or concerns, that is what we are here for. I just don’t see the value of a barrowload of negativity when the guy hasn’t even been announced yet, much less made a single decision for you to have issue with. Hasn’t it been depressing enough, week in week out?

This. In spades.

[NFAS]

13 hours ago, Max Fowler said:

Perish the thought of fans having opinions or concerns.

Of course we were also told to shut up early on when Potter was going off the rails, and look how well that worked out.

It's okay to have concerns about Poch and still wish him every chance of succeeding.

To be objective I think there would be concerns about any coach we hired

[johnnybozo]

2 hours ago, NFAS said:

To be objective I think there would be concerns about any coach we hired

Zidane: can only coach established first teamers and mostly lets them crack on with the job

Enrique: unproven at club level having been out of club management for many years

Poch: never won anything until PSG

Nagelsmann: too young

Mourinho: never builds for the future. Past it

Alex Ferguson: too mean to players. Kicks boots at his star player

Conte: too honest

 

Anyone can find a reason to be concerned about a particular hire. Personally I'm just sick of the managerial merry go round and randomly sacking outstanding coaches like Jose, Ancelotti, Conte, Tuchel, etc. Instead of just letting them build a long term project.

Having a team with a culture and spine that we've only had because players like JT, Lamps, Drogba, Cech etc enforced it is worth a lot more to me than instant success.

Doesn't mean we have to blindly ignore any issues that might arise. But letting Poch have time to let his philosophy sink into the club's foundations is something I'm willing to give.

[boratsbrother]

4 hours ago, NFAS said:

To be objective I think there would be concerns about any coach we hired

True!

We are obviously not getting Pep or Klopp and been through the other top managers. Everyone else is a level or two below the very best so everyone else is going to be a bit of a punt.  All we can do is hope they come in and do a good job and we all support whoever that is, even if we wouldn't personally like them to be the next manager.

 

[thevelourfog]

11 hours ago, Max Fowler said:

I didn’t say at some point. I said 12-18 months. I thought we were here to debate Chelsea - apparently if you have an opinion that says isn’t Poch is an absolutely elite manager and guaranteed success your views are not welcome. Shame - we’re stronger as a fanbase with different viewpoints.

Differences of opinion are fine, but stuff like this isn't worth anyone's effort. Sorry mate, I'm out.

[xceleryx]

1 hour ago, boratsbrother said:

True!

We are obviously not getting Pep or Klopp and been through the other top managers. Everyone else is a level or two below the very best so everyone else is going to be a bit of a punt.  All we can do is hope they come in and do a good job and we all support whoever that is, even if we wouldn't personally like them to be the next manager.

 

Which is a big part in why this whole restructuring process was inevitably going to happen at some point, there's only so many top tier managers a club can burn through before the bucket becomes empty. 

[paulw66]

6 hours ago, NFAS said:

To be objective I think there would be concerns about any coach we hired

This.

There wasn't a single viable candidate that didn't have a question mark over him to some degree. Much like always. 

I'd be amazed if anyone could name someone (a realistic someone) that would just be a unanimous "yes" from everyone. 

[Max Fowler]

9 hours ago, McCreadie said:

No-one has any problem with different opinions or concerns, that is what we are here for. I just don’t see the value of a barrowload of negativity when the guy hasn’t even been announced yet, much less made a single decision for you to have issue with. Hasn’t it been depressing enough, week in week out?

Read my post again though.

About half of it was saying we should celebrate because Poch is the best man available from the coaches we have left.

There would be concerns about any of those coaches, but my sense is that Nagelsmann was of the personality required to really take us to the top. The owners had concerns he was too like Tuchel - that is exactly the profile we needed. Incredibly impressive and charismatic every time he opens his mouth - still a chance of him stepping up to the top three managers in world football.

Maybe Poch will be a great fit for this transition - I will have to be proved wrong that he has that elite level personality and charisma to take us to winning big titles.

Boehly didn’t like Nagelsmann because he wanted „more than a coach“, the same with Potter. IMO we should have just hired the best coach available.

I hope those of you complaining about negativity will give a bit more leeway to our squad. We’ve got a lot of great lads and need a couple of experienced additions to do ok with Poch next season.

1 hour ago, xceleryx said:

Which is a big part in why this whole restructuring process was inevitably going to happen at some point, there's only so many top tier managers a club can burn through before the bucket becomes empty. 

Well we burned through one top level manager due to the terrible decision making of our current owners, so it’s not like we’re still not cleaning up after that mess. 

You don’t sack the 3rd best manager in the world and expect anyone from the top three to still be available.

Back Poch but question these owners.

[ROTG]

24 minutes ago, Max Fowler said:

Back Poch but question these owners.

Poch is down to the TB sports department who's job was to identify, interview and recommend the best candidate to the owners for their approval.

The bottom line, if it goes south again, the owners have the buffer of Stewart, Vevil and Winstanley to take the blame, who IMO are already on thin ice based on their January spend.

It will be interesting how the club word the Sports Departments relationship with Poch.

Finally - look like some kind of sanity is back, if the rumours are true it a 3 year contract for Poch.

[Holymoly]

We need to read Matt Law's article in the Times

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2023/05/15/mauricio-pochettino-chelsea-hot-coals-lemons-gacon-test/

Unfortunately it's behind a paywall but there is a discussion of the article on Youtube:

I for one was left chuckling at the thought of what some of these self important herberts we have playing for us are going to go through over the summer. It certainly sounds like it will sort out the men from the boys, hopefully without knackering the likes of James, Chilwell or Kante before the season even begins though. Even if it fails to work and we end up still in the bottom half next season at least we will be able to console ourselves with the thought the players wil be snapping arrows aginst their necks come Monday.

[Bob Singleton]

That Matt Law article from the Telegraph:
 

Mauricio Pochettino likes to keep a tray of lemons in his office, after an Argentine friend told him they absorb negative energy, and he believes he has the ability to see an aura around people.

For Pochettino, energy and the mind are everything, and his Chelsea players can expect to be judged on much more than statistics and spreadsheets when their new head coach arrives.

Writing in his book, Brave New World, Pochettino said: “I need data and tests, but what most influences my decisions is my ability to see if the right energy is flowing. I can foresee things that are going to happen and the associated consequences, or which path each player is going to take. I can see it in their auras.”

A recurring theme among Chelsea coaches since the club’s last Premier League title success six years ago has been to question the mentality of the squad and getting that right will be Pochettino’s top priority.

Certainly, the way this season has gone has suggested more than a few minds need to be focused. Players will have to leave their comfort zones and allow their limits to be tested to impress Pochettino.

Preparations for Tottenham Hotspur’s 2019 Champions League final involved players following Pochettino over hot coals and snapping arrows against their throats.

“When you see the arrow, you think ‘it’s impossible, how am I going to break the arrow against my throat?’” Pochettino said ahead of the final. “You say ‘No, come on, I am going to kill myself.’ You put it with the sharp tip against your throat but then, bang, you come forward and break the arrow. The most important thing is to learn how you can prepare your mind. To be focused. To be proactive. This is the key in football.

“If you are going to run, of course you need big legs, muscle and everything, but if your mind says ‘No, I cannot run, you’re going to be tired,’ then you cannot move. That is why, before everything, is your mind; your emotions need to be in a good place. Your mind is powerful and only you settle your limits.”

Running is something Chelsea players who want to succeed under Pochettino will have to do a lot of and they may soon become familiar with the notorious Gacon test, a gruelling intermittent shuttle run favoured by the coach and his staff.

“To start with, the players have 45 seconds to cover 150 metres, with 15 seconds to rest,” explained Pochettino in his book. “In each subsequent 45-second rep, they have to run 6.25 metres further, with the intensity steadily increasing.”

Southampton players hated the Gacon test and, upset with the amount of running Pochettino was demanding on Mondays after games, Rickie Lambert went to see his new coach to request a relaxation. He was listened to politely and the pair shook hands.

“I went out [of the office] and went back to the lads made up, thinking, ‘yep, just done it for you boys, next Monday gonna be sorted’,” the striker said. “So, I played the game [the next weekend], 90 minutes again, come in Monday, not only did we do 12, we did 24 runs – 24 runs and I just knew, I was running around laughing and almost crying and I knew what he was doing, he was breaking me and he did, he broke me.”

Lambert went on to play for England and earn a dream move to Liverpool, just as Danny Rose flourished under Pochettino at Tottenham after an early wake-up call.

“He’s very thorough, very precise, he’s a disciplinarian,” said Rose. “He records training. He was the first manager I came across who records training, records gym sessions. There’s no hiding places.

“There was one game, we played Crystal Palace, and I thought I had a good game. He called me into his office the next day to analyse the game. I thought there were going to be some good clips. He had 26 bad clips of what I did wrong. That’s how he is as a manager.”

It is not just his players who will be asked to face their fears and shortcomings, either. While on a Tottenham staff bonding trip to Argentina, Pochettino demanded that Daniel Levy join him and his staff in a white-water raft, which ended with him having to fish the chairman out of the Manso River.

“The thing that’s important to say is, we all have fear,” explained Pochettino. “People without fears don’t exist. It’s not that the players are not going to fear anything, but they are going to be free to work [through them]. There are people that freeze with fear. Successful people have the same fears – it’s just that they take them on.”

The word “bravery” runs through Pochettino’s philosophy and, in his book, he wrote: “If you are brave in your life, you cannot behave in a different way on the pitch. I don’t understand how to play in a different way. Always be brave. I like to be brave.”

Pochettino does not fine his players for being a couple of minutes late or wearing the wrong clothing, as he wants characters who are prepared to express themselves. But respect always has to be shown and players will be expected to address co-controlling owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali with a “hello” or handshake, in the same way Tottenham players were encouraged to greet Levy and one another.

“In the beginning, there were more rules but today not so many because they share the value,” said Pochettino in 2016, when Tottenham mounted an unexpected title challenge. “Today, we share the rules, on and off the pitch. And the rules become a habit.

“One example: Every morning, we all shake hands with each other to show respect, to show you feel for your team-mates and that you are interested in the people with whom you shake hands.

“This is a small thing which means a lot to create a real team. A lot of things like this are important to settle in the team and show in the team. To be ready to fight for each other.”

At Espanyol, the first club he managed, fans produced T-shirts with Pochettino wearing the beret made famous by the Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara. He obviously enjoyed the comparison and Chelsea supporters, who loved the battling qualities of former managers and players such as Jose Mourinho and Diego Costa, will relish Pochettino’s fighting spirit.

“It’s true, I am a little bit romantic. I have this spirit – like Che Guevara. I am a fighter,” explained Pochettino. “At Espanyol, when we stayed up in my first season, the fans created ‘Po-Che’ [T-shirts]. My face like this. With the beret. I was so proud. Was he a genuine hero of mine? I don’t know, I don’t want to mix politics. It’s still unbelievable.”

Pochettino’s Chelsea revolution will not be without physical and mental pain for his players. But those who have seen their careers transformed under him, including Lambert and Rose, would insist Pochettino is worth casting aside their fears and walking over hot coals for.

 

 

[Mark Kelly]

11 minutes ago, Holymoly said:

We need to read Matt Law's article in the Times

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2023/05/15/mauricio-pochettino-chelsea-hot-coals-lemons-gacon-test/

Unfortunately it's behind a paywall but there is a discussion of the article on Youtube:

I for one was left chuckling at the thought of what some of these self important herberts we have playing for us are going to go through over the summer. It certainly sounds like it will sort out the men from the boys, hopefully without knackering the likes of James, Chilwell or Kante before the season even begins though. Even if it fails to work and we end up still in the bottom half next season at least we will be able to console ourselves with the thought the players wil be snapping arrows aginst their necks come Monday.

Torture is too good for them...

[martin1905]

Looking forward to finally playing a system that suits the players and more importantly the league we play in. No more 8 defensive players on the pitch. No more 5 at the back, no more playing players out of position.

 

I can't remember the last time we had a consistent best 11, obviously squad management has to play a part but picking your best players, in their best positions, as regularly as possible will go a long way to improving us. 

Watching a settled team, with a game plan,  which has been properly coached will be a novelty and I am very much looking forward to.

[Chelsea_Matt]

4 minutes ago, martin1905 said:

Looking forward to finally playing a system that suits the players and more importantly the league we play in. No more 8 defensive players on the pitch. No more 5 at the back, no more playing players out of position.

 

I can't remember the last time we had a consistent best 11, obviously squad management has to play a part but picking your best players, in their best positions, as regularly as possible will go a long way to improving us. 

Watching a settled team, with a game plan,  which has been properly coached will be a novelty and I am very much looking forward to.

Just actually trying their best will be a great start.

[Bob Singleton]

Somebody mentioned The Athletic article (also behind a paywall) the other day, so here it is for those interested:
 

If the Chelsea owners and players buy into Pochettino’s vision, then the sky is the limit

Jack Pitt-Brooke

14–17 minutes

---

Mauricio Pochettino has a saying.

“When a player signs a contract, they need to understand that they do not sign a contract to play games. You sign a contract to train. Then you wait for the manager to pick the team.”

So much of Pochettino’s approach to management is contained in those 36 words, including a sense of what he wants to see in his teams: hungry, humble players who don’t assume they have an innate right to start games; a unified group where everybody is equal and respects everyone else; a squad who have fully bought into the manager’s ideas, convinced rather than coerced, believing that they are now part of something bigger than themselves.

Those players who do not believe in the manager’s ideas are welcome to go and play somewhere else.

When people think about Pochettino, and what he might bring to Chelsea, they may think about the aggressive high press and organisation in possession, the outcome you see on the pitch. Or about the relentless running and double training sessions that make it possible. This is all true, but the foundations are the human connections, between Pochettino and his players, and between the players themselves.

What ties together these different elements of Pochettino’s work — what makes the football really buzz — is his ability as a man-manager and squad builder. This is what he did so well at Tottenham, creating an ethos and culture where none previously existed, turning a disparate jumble of footballers into the most unified and determined Spurs team in modern history. He just had to give those players something to believe in.

But when Pochettino became Paris Saint-Germain coach in January 2021, he struggled to exert the same grip on the place that he had at Tottenham. How do you create a unified squad of hungry, humble players when some of them are being paid 10 times more than others? How do you convince footballers they need to buy into your methods and respect your processes when they have won so much already in their careers? And how do you tell players they do not have an automatic right to play in the games when they have been signed by the club as ambassadors for the owners’ sporting project?

The big question as Pochettino takes over at Stamford Bridge is whether this job will be more like Tottenham for him or more like PSG. Will he be able to convince the players his methods are the path to improving themselves and building a winning team? Will he be able to sideline those who do not buy into his ideas? Will he be able to build a culture and an ethos where none currently exists, building the conditions for his style of football to flourish?

Think back to when Pochettino arrived from Southampton to take over at Tottenham in the summer of 2014.

In hindsight, it has the appearance of a clean slate or a fresh start — Pochettino coming in and pressing a reset button, returning everything to zero. But football is not that simple and, in reality, he inherited a mess.

This meant trusting young players who were hungry and ambitious enough to want to improve: not just Harry Kane but Ryan Mason, Nabil Bentaleb and new signing Eric Dier. They did not all play instantly, but their contracts were to train, not to play — remember — and they were given the belief that they needed to make a difference. Kane’s 90th-minute free-kick winner away to Aston Villa that November is still one of Pochettino’s favourite moments of his five-plus years in north London because it kick-started the shared belief that Spurs were finally heading in the right direction.

It also meant sidelining players who did not believe in Pochettino’s approach.

There was not too much change at the start of that first season but after a few months it became clear who was buying in and who was not. And for a manager like Pochettino, you are either fully on board with his work or not on board at all. It did not take long for Younes Kaboul (who was officially the club captain at the time), Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Emmanuel Adebayor and Aaron Lennon to find themselves relegated to the sidelines. They barely featured in the league after November of that first year. And when Adebayor and Lennon showed up for pre-season the following summer, they were not given squad numbers or allowed to train with the main squad.

Soon enough, Pochettino had what he wanted: a squad of hungry players totally committed to his ideas and to each other. Every win proved to the squad that they were on the right track, and encouraged them to keep working. So if at first the high-intensity running drills at the end of every training session were unpopular, every win showed them why they were worthwhile.

If Spurs had successfully moved on players during the Pochettino peak, they could have retained their edge. But Dele Alli, Danny Rose, Toby Alderweireld, Dier, Moussa Sissoko, Lucas Moura and many others stayed put. Tottenham did not add a single player in 2018-19’s two windows and Pochettino knew that in football, either the players change or the manager does. By the time Spurs started refreshing the squad again, in the summer of 2019, it was too late.

The rot had set in, the ethos was lost, and Pochettino was sacked that November.
 

---

The issue at Paris Saint-Germain was that Pochettino could never be the same dominant figure there he was at Spurs. Even his skills at squad management, his ability to set the right culture and ethos among the group, struggled to make an impact in the French capital.

When Pochettino took over at Spurs, he had the power to promote players he liked and sideline those he did not. He could pick the team as he saw fit, rewarding the players who had trained well, punishing those who did not, always with the message that nobody had an inherent right to play in the games. In short, he was more powerful than the players he was coaching.

But PSG are not set up like that. When he arrived midway through 2020-21 they had Kylian Mbappe and Neymar, and after his first half-season they added Lionel Messi. These were not just players for the club but ambassadors for the whole project. It did not help that the big names made it harder for Pochettino to find a place for Angel Di Maria, whom he loved. Or that, when he had a goalkeeper he trusted in Keylor Navas, the club brought in Italy’s No 1 Gianluigi Donnarumma as well.

This was never a team built in Pochettino’s image. It was a club dominated by egos and cliques. So it was difficult to generate the same sense of hunger, unity and shared goals he had at Tottenham.

There was never going to be much common ground or togetherness between the three megastars and the lesser players, who were paid a tiny fraction of what they were making. Nor was there much of a sense of unity between the three superstars themselves, who all found themselves having to share things at PSG — acclaim, attention, penalties, the ball itself — that they did not want to share. Pochettino loves nothing more than the work of improving individuals on the training pitch, but it is hard to convince someone of the need to improve when they are busy living their life as a god.

What all that meant was a bunch of very talented individuals who could never become the same unified group that he had in north London.

The results were not bad: in that first half-season, PSG missed out on Ligue 1 by one point but averaged more points in his 21 league games than they had in the 17 under predecessor Thomas Tuchel. In his only full season, they won the title back but were painfully knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid when they seemingly had the quarter-final won, at 2-0 up on aggregate after an hour of the second leg. Yet Pochettino was still replaced last summer.
 

The question, again, is whether the Chelsea job will be more like Tottenham or PSG?

Critics may argue Pochettino struggled at a ‘superclub’ and is better suited to working with a more upwardly-mobile ambitious side. But PSG are a unique proposition — no other superclub are run quite like them — and Pochettino’s eye was always on another big job. And it might be that Chelsea provides the right conditions for him to determine the whole club’s ethos and culture again. He can offer them the same reset he offered Spurs nine years ago.

Yes, Chelsea are rich and glamorous, but they are also in a transitional phase, to put it mildly. Partly because the 19-year ownership of Roman Abramovich ended less than 12 months ago, and their new owners are still finding their feet. Pochettino will be the fourth head coach of their brief tenure (the fifth if you include Bruno Saltor’s one game in interim charge).

Yes, Chelsea have been successful in recent years, winning the 2020-21 Champions League and the Club World Cup in 2022 under Tuchel. But since their last Premier League title in 2016-17, their best league finish is third (twice). This season, they are likely to end up outside the top 10 for the first time since 1995-96. Pochettino is not walking into a dressing room who have been winning so much they have lost the capacity to learn. If the players he’s inheriting have been humbled by the events of this season, then they could be more open to submitting themselves to a fresh set of ideas.

Of course, Chelsea have spent huge amounts of money and have far more players than they need. But there is no Neymar or Mbappe on the books, and no Messi on the way. These are not the most famous and decorated players in the world, even if some of them cost more money than they should have. The issue is one of excess volume more than anything else.

Squad management this summer will be difficult at first.

Pochettino will need a slimmer squad if he is to work the way that he wants to. He will quickly learn which players buy into his ideas and want to improve with him, and which do not. He will certainly need the owners to back him in sidelining those in the latter camp. Chelsea will have to be brave in moving on some — braver than Tottenham were in his later years — even if it means big financial losses on their investments. This is not an easy market for Premier League clubs to sell in, and trimming the fat will not be easy.

But if all of that happens, and the owners are aligned with Pochettino’s vision, you can see how it might play out.

If he can convince enough players to buy into his approach, he could soon have the squad just as he wants it: hungry, humble and unified, committed to each other and to improving themselves. And if he gets that, and establishes that shared ethos and culture with everyone pulling in the same direction, loyal to his ideas and to each other, the sky will be the limit.

 

[thevelourfog]

2 hours ago, Bob Singleton said:

Mauricio Pochettino likes to keep a tray of lemons in his office, after an Argentine friend told him they absorb negative energy, and he believes he has the ability to see an aura around people.

Oh ... Good?

[Mark Kelly]

1 minute ago, thevelourfog said:

Oh ... Good?

At least he'll be able to recognise a bunch of lemons.

Clue: They're wearing blue.

[chara]

Just a Thank You to @Bob Singleton for posting another relevant article that a lot of us cannot get access to.

[Bob Singleton]

Pochettino walking to the airport to catch the next flight to London

[Chelsea_Matt]

2 hours ago, chara said:

Just a Thank You to @Bob Singleton for posting another relevant article that a lot of us cannot get access to.

It’s the usual stuff we see before a manager is announced tbh 

[ROTG]

Skysports news in meltdown on the long awaited Poch appointment.

they are covering all bases by saying it will happen this week. 

[Chelsea_Matt]

26 minutes ago, ROTG said:

Skysports news in meltdown on the long awaited Poch appointment.

they are covering all bases by saying it will happen this week. 

So I see. It’s been imminent for a month so not holding my breath tbh, Mr Gizmo

[Holymoly]

58 minutes ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

So I see. It’s been imminent for a month so not holding my breath tbh, Mr Gizmo

All the media stating unequivocally that we're going to be back at the top next season with MoPo. Presumably their glee will be unbridled when we're still just as bad. It's going to take more than a change of manager to turn us around that fast 

[Chelsea_Matt]

4 minutes ago, Holymoly said:

All the media stating unequivocally that we're going to be back at the top next season with MoPo. Presumably their glee will be unbridled when we're still just as bad. It's going to take more than a change of manager to turn us around that fast 

Yeah but a great start  if we get ol’ Mozza Cappuccino!

Edited May 15, 2023 by Chelsea_Matt

[boratsbrother]

7 hours ago, Mark Kelly said:

At least he'll be able to recognise a bunch of lemons.

Clue: They're wearing blue.

He'll have a good selection of lemons and  melons.