Chelsea closing in on appointing Mauricio Pochettino as manager
BRIDGE-BOUND? Mauricio Pochettino.
Chelsea are closing in on appointing Mauricio Pochettino as their head coach. Pochettino is the favourite and there is growing confidence talks will end in a successful conclusion.
The former Tottenham manager, unemployed since leaving Paris Saint-Germain last summer, emerged as the frontrunner after Julian Nagelsmann withdrew from the race at the end of last week.
Pochettino has held a series of positive talks with Chelsea’s owners and it is understood confirmation of the Argentinian as the permanent successor to Graham Potter could come soon. It has been stressed, though, that the deal is not done and that the club have other candidates in mind in case negotiations collapse.
Chelsea’s controlling co-owners, Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali, are under pressure to make the right appointment after a chaotic first season. Pochettino, whose links with Spurs are unlikely to be an impediment to his taking the job, would be the third permanent manager to work under this ownership. Chelsea put Frank Lampard in temporary charge after firing Potter this month.
Potter, who had been in post for only seven months, had been brought in after the shock dismissal of Thomas Tuchel last September. However Chelsea, who have spent close to ÂŁ600m since last summer, fired the former Brighton manager after a dreadful run. Chelsea lie 11th in the Premier League and are unlikely to be in Europe next season.
Meanwhile interim Tottenham boss Cristian Stellini has told his bruised and battered troops to put their humiliation at Newcastle firmly behind them as they prepare to lock horns with Manchester United.
Stellini and his players headed away from Tyneside on Sunday with their tails between their legs after a 6-1 Premier League drubbing at St James' Park which severely dented their hopes of a top-four finish and Champions League football next season.
However, they have little time during which to lick their wounds with Carabao Cup winners and FA Cup finalists United due at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Thursday evening intent on cementing their own top four status.
Stellini told SPURSPLAY: "Now, we have to be responsible. We have to go back to our stadium, back after this performance. We have to throw this feeling away, immediately."
Asked what he had said at half-time, Stellini, who had opted to start with a back four in which Croatia international midfielder Ivan Perisic lined up at left-back, said: "We didn't speak a lot.
"We changed the system and the only thing we could say was that we had to play much better in the second half and prepare for the next game. I didn't want to lose the second half. It was important to find a bit of confidence, if you can, after a game like this."
As he reflected on the wreckage of a catastrophic trip north, Stellini issued an apology for an abject display and vowed to get to the bottom of what had gone so badly wrong.
He said: "We have to analyse, take a breath and understand what happened from the start in an important game like today. We have to take a breath and don't speak too much.
"The best thing we can say is that we apologise to everyone; the second is to analyse why and if the change of system affected this performance, because the performance in the first 25 minutes was really bad."
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