Mauricio Pochettino left Chelsea in his position as head coach after reaching a mutual agreement with the club.
The Blues confirmed on Tuesday that the 52-year-old manager has walked away from Stamford Bridge, which means the attention now turns on finding his successor.
Mauricio Pochettino lasted just one season at Chelsea before leaving, but he did go having achieved a sixth-placed finish in the Premier League with a young squad plagued by injuries all year.
Interestingly, The Independent has already reported that there’s three European giants that may be keen on appointing Pochettino at their clubs.
It’ll now be interesting to see how Pochettino’s departure impacts the squad. Of course, the appointment of his successor will be huge for the general mood.
How Mauricio Pochettino annoyed the Chelsea board
It was announced by Chelsea that Pochettino’s exit was by mutual agreement, but it turns out the club and head coach didn’t quite agree on everything.
HITC Football insider Graeme Bailey, who spoke exclusively to The Chelsea Chronicle, has provided some information on why Chelsea’s board were frustrated with Pochettino.
Bailey said: “From what I understand, it was a long time coming. The fact that they’ve been doing their due diligence on new coaches for a number of weeks. It was always there, the fact that they might move on from him. It was always a possibility.”
“The good run towards the end of the season, I think from the Chelsea hierarchy’s point of view, papered over a few cracks. They weren’t particularly happy with him being so outspoken when it came to transfers and other things. He was a Todd Boehly appointment, so for the rest of the hierarchy, I’m not convinced they were that convinced by him. So, they’ve taken the opportunity to make a change.
“They thought they should be finishing higher than they were. They think they can improve with a new head coach. That was their overall feeling. No matter how they ended the season, they always had the belief that they should be moving on.”
Disagreement over transfers
It sounds like a disagreement over strategy when it came to transfers played a part in the eventual decision for Pochettino to leave Chelsea this week.
The Mirror also recently claimed that Pochettino’s desire to have more influence on transfers was one of the reason him and Chelsea couldn’t come to an agreement to continue into next season.