Chelsea reporter notebook: Mauricio Pochettino officially starts work on phase two of Stamford Bridge overhaul – Sky Sports
Football
Mauricio Pochettino was the unanimous choice of the Chelsea board; Argentine has already overseen a £212m fire sale but Monday is his first official day in office; Sky Sports News reporter Dharmesh Sheth and Ben Grounds assess the next steps in the rebuild
By Sky Sports News reporter Paul Gilmour and Ben Grounds
Tuesday 6 February 2024 16:32, UK
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Mauricio Pochettino walked into Cobham training ground on Monday morning for his first official day in office under no illusions of the daunting task ahead of him.
Chelsea have wasted little time in carrying out what has been described as ‘phase one’ in bouncing back from the wreckage of last season.
Pochettino has the charisma, calibre and character to mould solutions out of the current malaise, and after £212m worth of talent was offloaded before the financial year ended on June 30, the Argentine must now embark on the next phase of the Stamford Bridge rebuild.
Sky Sports News reporter Paul Gilmour and Ben Grounds take a deep dive into what remains on Pochettino’s in-tray.
Pochettino inherited 35 first-team players. That didn’t include Malo Gusto and Andrey Santos, who this summer will join up with the squad for the first time having signed for Chelsea during the £600m spending splurge of the last two transfer windows.
The sales of N’Golo Kante, Kalidou Koulibaly, Mateo Kovacic, Edouard Mendy, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Kai Havertz have helped trim a bloated squad.
Despite the progress being made with departures there is still work to do to address the imbalance in the squad. Numbers are slowly coming down. Expect a squad of 23 or 24 by the time the season gets underway.
Chelsea hoping to benefit from Jackson’s sliding doors moment
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Mason Mount is undergoing his Manchester United medical but there are still players who have been deemed surplus to requirements.
Lyon have made an offer worth £21.5m for forward Christian Pulisic and talks over a payment structure are ongoing. AC Milan remain keen – but have yet to make an official bid.
Meanwhile, Chelsea are close to an agreement over a mutual termination of captain Cesar Azplicueta’s contract. It would allow Azpilicueta to become a free agent. Atletico Madrid are ready to do a deal while Inter Milan are also thought to be interested.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Trevoh Chalobah and Marc Cucurella all fit under this same category.
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While the playing staff will arrive through the training doors on Tuesday, some players who were on international duty with their country for the European Qualifiers have been handed an extended break.
For Pochettino, this will have bought him some breathing space for when Romelu Lukaku is due to return. The 30-year-old is keen to stay in Italy and talks remain ongoing for Inter Milan to find a solution in securing a permanent deal.
They have yet to make an offer Chelsea are satisfied with. The Belgium striker’s future was in serious doubt when he departed for Inter Milan on loan last summer after the breakdown of his relationship with Thomas Tuchel.
Lukaku may yet seek a permanent move away, but is on £350,000 a week. He may claim he has unfinished business – not for the first time – and the sour taste left by his second coming may have eased with the change in manager.
Chelsea have signed Jackson and Nkunku – but the shortage of goals last season has emphasised the need for options should those Premier League rookies struggle to hit the ground running.
With further loan deals ruled out and only permanent moves being considered, Lukaku is a conundrum Pochettino must solve.
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Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo is the club’s next transfer priority following the arrivals of Christopher Nkunku and Nicolas Jackson for a combined £84m.
Chelsea are expected to formally approach Brighton once a number of outgoing deals are finalised.
Now that Kovacic and Kante have departed – and Mount will soon follow – Pochettino will prioritise partnering Enzo Fernandez with Caicedo in midfield.
The Ecuadorian was a vital cog as Brighton finished sixth but has been the subject of heavy interest from several clubs.
Brighton rejected a £70m bid by Arsenal in January and are demanding £100m. Chelsea are hoping to bring the player’s valuation down to a fee in the region of £80m.
Pochettino met training ground staff, recorded his Chelsea TV interview, and began planning his sessions for remainder of the week ahead of flying to the US for tour.
Part of the planning focused on an approach to fitness with Jesus Perez and they will tailor programmes and the correct load for each player. Chelsea will be hoping this can help avoid the long injury lists seen last season.
Pochettino was in charge at Southampton during a time Luke Shaw overcame a run of injuries and enjoyed a consistent run in the team. This will add weight to the belief he can find the solution to Reece James’s injury woes.
The players return on Tuesday although this approach will be staggered due to some of them being away on international duty with their U21 sides.
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Too often last season, Chelsea’s body language gave the game away. Confidence and belief was at an all-time low. Frank Lampard failed to win a single game at home.
In 2014, when Pochettino arrived at Tottenham, he made it his duty to remind his players of the club’s history and its expectations. Graham Potter lacked self-assurance and never looked a natural fit.
Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte were both title winners and oozed entitlement bordering on arrogance. While Pochettino failed to secure silverware at Spurs, he guided them to a Champions League final with swagger.
Image is every bit as important to the club’s identity as the trophy haul of the past 20 years and Pochettino must show the personality to satisfy both those requirements.
The incoming manager will be tasked with recreating a winning culture while continuing to make cut-throat decisions on the future of several senior players.
Pochettino is said to arrange his desk to include a bowl of lemons nearby in order to absorb any negative energy. The greater the negativity, the theory goes, the quicker the lemons rot.
The 51-year-old will hope the deeper he heads into his first summer in charge, the juicier the citrus fruit will become. For now, he can at least reflect on fitting his first-team squad inside the same changing room.
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“Suddenly I hear Pochettino. I like him but this is Tottenham. The man’s got to understand, he’s American. That’s like a Yankee going to play for the Mets. It doesn’t happen. It shouldn’t happen.”
The words of Paul Merson, a self-proclaimed Chelsea fan, upon hearing the news of Pochettino’s name emerging as the club’s front-runner.
It is an appointment that has divided the fanbase, but results and the swift work completed on removing those not in his plans will have already started to shift the mood.
One Tottenham fan went viral for burning Guillem Balague’s Brave New World – a biography charting Pochettino’s rise. In his eyes, he is public enemy No 1 after joining their neighbours.
“It was easy to say yes to Chelsea,” said a relaxed Pochettino in his first interview with club media on Monday. “We’ll work hard, play in a way the fans can enjoy football.
“The history of Chelsea is to win and be at the top. We can’t have up and downs. In the last 10, 12, 15 years, Chelsea is the greatest team in England.
“It’s a culture of winning here. We want to bring the happiness again to this great football club.”
Pochettino must continue to silence the Spurs connection.
Ultimately, his reign will be defined by his players.
Mykhailo Mudryk played well for Ukraine as they beat France to book their place in the European U21 Championship finals on Sunday night. Chelsea have planned to re-build his confidence in Georgia and Romania but a minor muscle injury kept him out of the group stage.
Despite having shown flashes of brilliance, the 22-year-old winger has struggled to justify the £88.5m transfer fee to Shakhtar Donetsk.
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Fifteen appearances and just two assists. Mudryk is yet to find the net while he has only ever completed 90 minutes in the Premier League once.
Starting just seven games and being brought off the bench on eight occasions, Mudryk will now hope for a run of games under Pochettino.
Mudryk made his first appearance at Anfield back in January, and impressed during his cameo. The new Premier League fixture list has given him the perfect chance for a fresh start, back where it all began.
Levi Colwill wants talks with Pochettino over his status in the team before he considers discussing a new contract.
Chelsea have insisted the player is not for sale this summer after a fine season on loan at Brighton and they want to approach him about discussing a new deal.
However, the England U21 international wishes to understand where he fits into Pochettino’s plans this season and how much regular playing time he can come to expect, before discussing new terms.
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Colwill, who is under contract until 2025, will seek to understand just how fundamental he is to those plans when he returns to pre-season training following England U21 duty.
Colwill is widely considered one of England’s best centre-back prospects and is somewhat of a commodity given he is left-footed.
But he is also competing with Benoit Badiashile – a £35m signing from Monaco in January – for the left centre-back role at Chelsea.
Brighton wanted to sign Colwill permanently this summer but had a £30m bid flatly rejected amid Chelsea’s insistence he is not for sale and is wanted as part of Pochettino’s plans.
As well as Brighton, Colwill has been on the target lists at a host of Premier League clubs.
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