Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino on joining “the greatest team in England”

Mauricio Pochettino joins Chelsea with the club at a low ebb. In 2022/23 they slumped to a bottom-half Premier League finish despite spending more than £500m on transfers in little over a year.

Pochettino had been without a club for a year, since leaving Paris Saint-Germain last summer, and decided on a return to England to restart his career. He becomes the third full-time head coach employed by Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly in little over a year in control of the club.

As the players prepare to return for pre-season, Pochettino outlined his plans for the upcoming campaign.

“In the last 10, 12, 15 years, Chelsea is the greatest team in England,” he said in an interview posted on the club website.

“I know very well the Premier League and what the culture of Chelsea means. I think our fans are excited to again be on the road of trying to win.”

He continued: “Of course, there are always up and downs in the history of football, but Chelsea is a club that it is impossible to have these up and downs. We need to be sure that we bring what the club needs to be at the top because the history of the club is to be at the top.”

New-look Chelsea will be built on young core

The former Tottenham Hotspur boss has already managed to shed a number of older players from the over-stocked squad. The likes of Mateo Kovacic, N’Golo Kante, and Kalidou Koulibaly have already departed, with more expected to follow.

This should allow Pochettino to focus his efforts on the young talents at his disposal, something that he proved an expert at during spells with Southampton and Tottenham.

“Of course, we are excited,” he said, when asked about his expectations for the season. “We are excited to work with a very young team, with a different approach than in the past.

“I think we all need to understand that we have to work really hard and create a very good atmosphere at the training ground to build success for the team in the next few years.”

Pochettino drawn to the Chelsea project

The Argentinian coach joins Chelsea after a period of upheaval sparked by the forced sale of the club by long-time owner Roman Abramovich. The new owners have courted controversy with the bombastic nature of some early decisions, but Pochettino said that they had convinced him of the merits of the project.

“From the beginning, the owners and sporting directors were very clear about the project and we were very excited to join them in this project,” he said.

“We are here to try to help the club and the fans. In the end, the most important thing in football is for them to be happy and to feel proud of us and in the way we approach games. The players need to know that.”

Chelsea will be in action in the United States later this month as part of their pre-season USA tour. Their first fixture will be against Wrexham in the Kenan Stadium, North Carolina.