Ironic how a coach most people didn’t want, now appears on the face of it has decided to leave us.

Then look at some of the proposed lucky men to take over RDZ, McKenna, Jose 😂 

Back to before the starting point again prior to a new season.

We've made a comedy of ourselves once again.

23 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Mutual consent. 

Reports suggesting the biggest disagreement was Poch wanting more direct control, which in turn would mean an extension on his contract. I think from the very beginning, ownership/the directors didn't see Poch as the long term solution. 

He was never supposed to be a long term solution hence why he had a two year contract. 

But I don't see the issue in giving the guy another season when he's managed to get the players going, just seems a silly decision to sack him off the back of that. Especially if we're going for RDZ ffs. 

3 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Don't listen to these journalists. Even Romano. They are going to take random names and run with it. 

 

 

 

4 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Don't listen to these journalists. Even Romano. They are going to take random names and run with it. 

 

 

It's Thiago Silva!

Wow , brilliant 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2024/05/21/mauricio-pochettinos-chelsea-exit-todd-boehly/

At around 11.30am on Tuesday morning, Mauricio Pochettino shook hands on his Chelsea departure and left the lawyers to finalise a divorce that had not required a relationship expert to predict.

Pochettino is the third permanent manager to leave the club under the Clearlake Capital-Todd Boehly ownership, but this time it was mutual. There was no sacking and no arguments or rancour, just handshakes and an agreement to move on respectfully.

A dinner with co-controlling owner Boehly last Friday night proved to be a last supper for Pochettino, but underlined the goodwill that remained underneath any disagreements or dissatisfaction.

With one year remaining on his two-year contract that was signed last summer, Pochettino will receive a handsome pay-off and can be proud of what he achieved at Chelsea having clinched European qualification in a five-game end-of-season winning run.

While Thomas Tuchel’s sacking was a shock, resulting in recriminations, and the dismissal of Graham Potter felt premature and harsh, Pochettino’s mutual departure appeared inevitable for some time and would no doubt be regarded as the best thing for both sides.

Pochettino was called into Chelsea’s Cobham training ground at around midday on Monday as part of the club’s end-of-season review to meet with sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart. He also spoke with co-owner Behdad Eghbali.

 

 Pochettino had met Todd Boehly (left) for dinner last Friday before spending several hours this week with Behdad Eghbali (right) CREDIT: Getty Images/Darren Walsh

There were no disagreements over who should be in charge of transfers or which players should or should not be sold. The differences are explained as being more philosophical and relate to the dynamics of working within a club structure.

With a long season only just finished, nobody wanted to make a rash decision that could later be regretted so all parties agreed to sleep on day one of the meeting and reconvene on Tuesday morning. But nothing had changed by day two and by about 11.30am Pochettino’s departure was verbally agreed.

Boehly had returned to America after dining with Pochettino last Friday night and visiting him again at Cobham the next day, ahead of the final-day victory over Bournemouth. The billionaire kept in contact by telephone during Monday and Tuesday’s discussions.

No arguments or rancour

Ultimately, Chelsea and Pochettino decided it was better to part now, after completing a relatively amicable 12 months together, rather than trying to push through the final year of his contract and risk a messy end to his reign.

There was also the threat that a bad start to next season or a poor run during the campaign would put pressure on the owners to make a mid-season change, which they have been keen to avoid since sacking Tuchel and Potter.

Chelsea are to compete in next summer’s Club World Cup, which starts on June 15, 2025 and Pochettino’s deal was agreed to run until the end of that month. There were concerns that keeping him another year for the sake of continuity would have created a difficult situation around that tournament.

Five successive home victories at the end of the season proved to be enough to clinch European qualification and Pochettino can leave with his reputation intact after also reaching a Carabao Cup final and the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

Over a 38-game Premier League season, however, Chelsea fell short of the owners’ target to qualify for the Champions League and there were moments when they came under pressure from supporters to make a change before the end of the season.

The plan was always to review the club’s performance, including that of Pochettino once the season had finished, but clues over the direction of travel have been there for some time. 

It was a few days after the January transfer window shut that Pochettino was asked a relatively innocuous question about the merit of set-piece coaches, which subsequently provided a window into how two worlds were colliding.

It also came in the build-up to the 4-2 home defeat by Wolverhampton Wanderers that left Pochettino fearing for his job.

Argentine at odds with club’s structure

Pochettino was dismissive of set-piece specialists, insisting “we are a coaching staff in charge of everything” before later adding: “Football belongs to the players. Not to the specialists.”

That was at odds with the structure being built by Chelsea’s owners and sporting directors, who have made it abundantly clear they believe football belongs to the players and the specialists.

Some of those around Pochettino claimed that Chelsea’s difficulties at defending from set-pieces could be easily explained by a relative lack of height within the squad, which would point the finger at those who assembled it.

Not only did Chelsea lose to Wolves in the next game at Stamford Bridge, following Pochettino’s dismissal of set-piece gurus, they also lost to Liverpool to a headed Virgil van Dijk goal from a corner in extra-time of the Carabao Cup final three weeks later.

Chelsea had wilted badly in extra-time against Liverpool’s kids and the nature of Van Dijk’s winner just rubbed salt into the wounds of the club’s sporting directors and owners.

Pochettino revealed that he met with Eghbali to “share opinions” after the Carabao Cup final. It later became clear, as exclusively reported by Telegraph Sport, that Chelsea were in the process of not only appointing a new set-piece specialist, but were setting up an entire department dedicated to corners and free-kicks.

Bernardo Cueva will start work heading up Chelsea’s set-piece department this summer and Pochettino no longer needs to worry whether or not he will need to make space on the touchline for another body, which he had warned he and he alone would decide.

Those close to Pochettino insist he had come to accept the arrival of Cueva and yet Chelsea’s desire to build a club structure that the head coach is part of has caused what proved to be irreconcilable differences in approach. It will not have gone unnoticed inside Stamford Bridge that Liverpool have advertised for a set-piece specialist since the departure of Jurgen Klopp.

Injury issues plagued club’s season

Chelsea’s crippling injury list was a problem for Pochettino on and off the pitch. Pre-season plans went up in smoke when Christopher Nkunku was forced out of the friendly against Borussia Dortmund with a knee problem that kept him out until December.

Nkunku managed only two starts over the entire season and Pochettino regularly had to contend with an injury list that ran into double figures. Rather than trying to apportion blame, the 52-year-old would often lament Chelsea’s bad luck. Behind the scenes, however, the situation raised serious questions and has put pressure on all departments of the club.

Pochettino’s influence in Cole Palmer’s amazing debut season for the club cannot be dismissed, while he also helped guide Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke through difficult starts to the season and an unnecessary penalty row in the thrashing of Everton.

Those who have criticised Pochettino’s tactics and substitutions have had to eat some humble pie after the decision to invert Marc Cucurella paid dividends and a number of players made an impact from the bench once the injuries cleared enough to give Chelsea options.

But, even throughout the winning five-game run at the end of the campaign, there remained a sense that all was not entirely well. Pochettino claimed it “would not be the end of the world” during a warning that he could effectively choose to quit Chelsea. And he did not hang around on the Stamford Bridge pitch after the final game of the season to applaud and clap the home fans who had stayed behind.

Pochettino had left the supporters to show their appreciation to the players, the people he feels football belongs to. But it meant the only men who got a personal goodbye were Winstanley, Stewart and Eghbali.

 

Also what does this do to our financials? Had to pay him another year in lump sum and presumably we’ve paid to get RDZ. f**king hell. 

5 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

They've got a 17 year old from South America lined up as the new manager

To be fair I'd take that over another Brighton w**ker.

1 hour ago, WhiteWall said:

Regardless of opinions about Pochettino these clowns are a complete fking cancer to our club. These c**ts are systematically killing our club. Yet again these w*nkers make us the laughing stock. Fking cancerous

Guarantee the next one is will be another step down. 

Apologies for this all. I'm clearly not happy about the way the directors of the club are handling things but this is over the top. Even with the asterisks the language and tone is poor from me.

Apologies everyone 

Random names bouncing around everywhere. Not a single one of them reassuring.

Edited May 21, 20242 yr by Fatty_Speeding

17 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Don't worry folks !

Stewart and Winstanley are leading the hunt for a new coach.

What could go wrong ?

I’d say with those clowns we could end up signing a 53 seater Scania, VDL or Mack.

Just now, WhiteWall said:

Apologies for this all. I'm clearly not happy about the way the directors of the club are handling things but this is over the top. Even with the asterisks the language and tone is poor from me.

Apologies everyone 

Gets to us all pal 👍 Fair play all the same

2 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

Apologies for this all. I'm clearly not happy about the way the directors of the club are handling things but this is over the top. Even with the asterisks the language and tone is poor from me.

Apologies everyone 

Hey, that's nice mate.

5 minutes ago, Victor90 said:

He was never supposed to be a long term solution hence why he had a two year contract. 

But I don't see the issue in giving the guy another season when he's managed to get the players going, just seems a silly decision to sack him off the back of that. Especially if we're going for RDZ ffs. 

But to add onto my point, what if Poch wanted more? More control in strategic decisions for a guy on a 1 year deal seems impractical. They would have to extend his contract. 

Kieran McKenna could be a good choice if our financial fair play points deduction is going to be so huge that we'll be starting 2025/26 in the Championship...... can't see any other reason why he'd be in the frame.

4 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

But to add onto my point, what if Poch wanted more? More control in strategic decisions for a guy on a 1 year deal seems impractical. They would have to extend his contract. 

Possibly, just a sh*t situation in general. 

I'll wait to see who they have lined up. I think you called it earlier with RDZ, very very likely it's going to be him, and I'm not happy with that whatsoever. I think that's a downgrade. 

i heard they are talking to rooney 

This is going to be a f**k around and find out situation.

We will realise that the grass isn’t always greener.

1 minute ago, Sconnie Blue said:

But to add onto my point, what if Poch wanted more? More control in strategic decisions for a guy on a 1 year deal seems impractical. They would have to extend his contract. 

We obviously haven't been able to get anyone that agrees with the "plan" , hence the short contract.

If the club knew months ago , you would think we  have a replacement lined up and ready to go ?

Can only hope.

Clueless. f**k Clearlake. Poch had us heading in the right direction for the first time in two years. 

2 minutes ago, alwayshopeful said:

i heard they are talking to rooney 

Christ I thought he was dead 

Poch clearly didn't like the way the board handled transfers and probably wanted to keep the likes of Gallagher and Chalobah for example.

A couple of months ago I wanted him out but he did turn it around so IMO deserved to stay and help tweak this squad.

What's the betting Chelsea try to hurry through the sales of Gallagher and Chalobah before any new manager has a chance to object.

They did it last season with Mount.

This is a very worrying sign for me that they want a "we decide who Chelsea buy and sell you just win football matches with the players we provide" structure - a yes man.

Another problem for me is I'm not convinced we'll make the right appointment to replace him.

If it's not Bob Stark taking the job I'm not interested

Hello all, been a couple months since I posted.

I was at the game on Sunday, was so pleased with how our season ended. The atmosphere was great, the team seemed confident.

They couldn't let us ride that good feeling for a few more days could they?

37 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

If they are yearning for control and defensive stability as being far more important than entertainment and goals, I really hope they aren't going back in for Potter LOL

Not sure how you'd achieve defensively stability when your first team back four have been on the treatment table all but a few games this season, Forfana, Chillwell, James, Colwill and a rookie goalkeeper adding to the mix, plus all the other injuries we barely had the same 11 week in week out until the final few games....

Imagine next season if our injury crises all of a sudden vanishes...

1 hour ago, Drogba1 said:

De Zerbi would be a good scenario, knowing this board we're more likely to get McKenna from Ipswich

No he wouldn't.  Have you watched much of Brighton recently.?