Pochettino fully onboard with Chelsea’s extreme makeover, has unwavering faith in project

In a league and a sport that measure success in hours and days, Chelsea have joined Manchester United (and Everton, to some extent) as this season’s early “crisis clubs”. It’s been just two games of course, but The Narrative must be satisfied.

Obviously, with just 1 point to show from the first two games after yet another transfer window of lavish spending and extreme transfer activity, resulting in further drastic changes to the squad (in both composition and age-profile), Chelsea make for a very easy target — even if some pundits are still capable of adding nuance to their analysis.

But Mauricio Pochettino assures that there is a plan in place, and that this is all part of it. (Mayhaps we haven’t executed to that plan perfectly, but those assessments cannot really be made yet either.)

And yes, he did in fact sign up for this madness. (And why wouldn’t he? Moulding a young team full of talent and potential and willingness to learn is surely a coach’s dream.)

“[This overhaul] was the idea of Paul [Winstanley] and Laurence [Stewart], the sporting directors, and the club. They presented the project of the club, with players in and players out. When I accepted, I accepted knowing what was going to happen in the squad.”

When he arrived, Pochettino left no doubt that he understands how success is ultimately measured, especially at a club like Chelsea. So when you don’t win, things become harder, visions narrow, and horizons get drawn in closer. But if we stick with it, maintain belief and a bit of patience, we will get there.

“We need to improve from last week and then the consequence is to have the three points. But the most important thing is the way we are going to play — it’s not only to win.

“Sometimes you win games but, in the end, you go down. But if you wait a little bit, with patience to build something, maybe the results will not arrive when you are playing well but you can be consistent and end the season where you deserve to be.”

“[But] we cannot translate [feelings] into points. We keep working and the players are really committed to the way we want to play. It is a process. We need to wait but for sure we are going to be really successful in the future.”

-Mauricio Pochettino; source: Sky

Let’s hope that future starts tonight!

If you can stomach Jamie Redknapp, here’s a lovely video with the bossman from last weekend: