Mauricio Pochettino looking to build ‘something special’ at Chelsea

The first few weeks of Mauricio Pochettino’s reign have gone about as well as we might have hoped (Fofana and Nkunku injuries, and Caicedo impasse aside), with good vibes, energetic performances, and plenty of positive words from all involved. Pochettino himself has made an excellent first impression, with assured confidence, warm personability, and clarity of vision seen not only his media appearances, but in his apparent effect on the players and of course our play on the pitch.

Preseason may be predisposed towards creating such feelings very easily of course — though we saw last year that it’s easy for things to go awry, too — but we’re cultivating them well and building a good foundation (at least in theory). That foundation will hopefully serve us well not only going into the new season (one week to go!) but for a long-time after.

The way we are so aggressively rebuilding and renewing the squad is surely a prime opportunity for a coach like Pochettino to create something wonderful. And he is indeed looking to do that — while keeping the all-important need to keep winning at the forefront as well.

“We are building something special. It’s a process and we need time. But in football you cannot ask for time and you need to deliver now. We are Chelsea and, even if we have young players involved against Liverpool, the mentality is to win.”

You might say that’s an impossible balancing act, but that’s where (hopefully) a long-term plan and vision comes into play, to help guide our decisions and evaluate our progress.

“I’m excited to start something medium- and long-term, but in football you never know. We all need to be together to see if we can develop something special here. [We] are working hard [and] I think we are in a good way [but] we are Chelsea and we need to win. Today, yesterday, not tomorrow.

“At the same time we need to work hard and be clever in how we are going to prepare next month, the next six months and the year. We need to have a plan and we need to have a guide that says: ‘We need to arrive there.’ If we arrive before, perfect. But if not we know that we are going to arrive at the destination. [...] You can’t win if you don’t build nothing but bringing names and players. [...] In general who wins is the club that is more consistent.”

-Mauricio Pochettino; source: Guardian

Here’s to winning with consistency!