I can’t see me being overly vocal about it as of right now at this point, but I have decided that we probably should be sacking him now.
I’ve always been really reluctant to call for another manager to be sacked and I detest the merry-go-round, but for me there are two major things why I now think he should go.
The first is Belle Silva’s post during the game yesterday. It’s also not been deleted.
It’s time to change. If you wait any longer it will be too late 💙💙
— Belle Silva (@bellesilva) February 4, 2024
Firstly, I now think she is correct here. If we are pulling the plug on Pochettino then it HAS to be now. We can still try and save something this season and also could have a major boost for the cup final (new manager bounce is a thing).
But also, this shows me that although it is Belle posting it, clearly this is also what Thiago will be thinking, and for me that maybe tells me that the players are no longer fully behind Pochettino, at least not all of them. When that happens, there is often no way back.
I have only ever heard good things on that by the way. I think it is impossible for every single player to always like a manager, but in general, I have always heard that they do like Pochettino and he has created some good relationships with some of the players. But as always in these situations when things are toxic and we are losing games, relationships will always get seriously tested, and maybe we are now at the point where they are?
The second biggest thing for me is Pochettino’s stubbornness and his inability to be pragmatic and make changes in his tactics and also, the plain lack of tactics that this team shows.
The finest example of this is how the midfield balance and setup was hideously found out against Liverpool, yet he uses it again and still leaves Moises Caicedo completely isolated against Wolves. Why has he not learned from his mistakes? Our left hand side was being battered by pace yesterday but he didn’t change anything. When fans can all see it but the manager cannot, that is hugely concerning.
And finally, my last point on why I now think Pochettino should be sacked, is that in all honesty, even though some of the players have been poor and the squad build has been naive at best, there’s no way that we should be doing as badly as we are currently doing. Being sat in 11th place on the 5th of February is unacceptable whether we think the squad is good enough or not. It’s good enough to be in a better position than where we are at right now. Yes we’ve got to a cup final and there has certainly been other improvements that we have seen, but the trajectory has just not been enough for this point in the season.
I don’t think I will actively be shouting ‘POCH OUT’ in this moment, because I was an advocate for his appointment and I do believe that his man-management style was needed for such a young squad. Also, I don’t hate the guy, and I’ve been willing him on to succeed here.
But I have to hold my hands up now and say that OK, maybe he wasn’t the right guy after all, and the club also need to hold their hands up now (yet again).
This is all after having slept on it so it’s not just an emotional reaction. I’ve also taken other things into account like he hasn’t created a connection with the fanbase at all, and he hasn’t even tried to. He doesn’t ever go and clap fans after games, even after a win, and it’s those little things that helps you create a connection with the fanbase. He seems to lack that passion, something I actually fully believed he would have, at least.
But also his fumbling around in press conferences and clearly being a yes man to the board *even though I do get that in a way – but heclearly needed to be firmer with what he wanted in the transfer windows). All of that has just effected my thoughts this morning as I have slept on it all.
Don’t get me wrong though, a lot of my blame is also on the owners and the SDs and actually, MORE of the blame. After all, they are the ones who have put all of this into place and are the ones who have made the final decisions on managers, coaches, and the players.
The squad build has been massively naive. I wont go into that too much again as I’ve said this a lot lately. But they have built a squad that may or may not come good in the future, but have completely ignored the here and the now, and have completely ignored the type of profiles that the manager wanted and has publicly asked for.
That’s why I said that if we aren’t listening to what the manager wants, at least to a certain extent, then what’s the point?
None of these decision makers have ever had experience building a squad, they have only ever been either good business people, or good scouts. And now they are suddenly gutting an entire team (which needed to happen and we did great selling some of those players), and replacing them with a whole new team, without having any actual experience of doing so? That’s just pure madness. This wasn’t just any old team either, this was Chelsea FC, a huge Premier League club. It’s just crazy when you take a step back and look what has happened here at this club with all of that, and it’s no wonder that yet another manager is under immense pressure here.
Will replacing Pochettino help anything at all? Who really knows? The squad has been assembled with huge naivety and at times, stupidity. What manager will come in and want to manage that and lead this ‘project’? I have no clue.
People have called for Jose Mourinho but imagine him with this board? Jose would ask for similar signings to what Pochettino has asked for, would he get them? Poch didn’t. Jose will certainly not be a yes man, that’s for sure. Then does it all become toxic yet again when we lose a few games and off goes another manager? Probably.
Jose Mourinho won three league title during his time as Chelsea manager.
I’d not be against Jose as an interim if he would accept that, but I’m not sure he would. I’d also want to put John Terry as his assistant if that happened. But as the new long-term option, for me that only spells out disaster and fallouts between the manager and the board.
They will want a manager now who will come in and tell them that they can make it work with this squad that has been assembled. Who is that? I have no idea.
The club is completely broken right now, and far too many mistakes have been made, some might even say to the point of no return.
You’ve got a fully toxic fanbase who are now booing their own players and calling for former owners and former managers to come back, chanting it at every game.
You’ve got people like me who have supported this club for 35 years now just completely numb to it all and finding ourselves detesting everything about the club from top to bottom.
And you’ve collectively got an entire fanbase who all are pointing fingers of blame to the manager, the players, and the owners/SD’s, and there are massive problems with ALL three of them.
