Pochettino: Madueke party video ‘not a big issue’ but better if avoided altogether

Noni Madueke came back with an injury from the last international break, which has kept him out ever since, but apparently that did not keep him from going out to party at a nightclub, as per a video that emerged last week.

Initially, this passed without too much further attention, but Mauricio Pochettino was asked about it in yesterday’s press conference, possibly prompted by Madueke’s continued absence and Poch’s terse answer about that midweek — calling it a selection choice, rather than something injury-enforced.

So conceivably these two things could be related, perhaps with Madueke getting dropped as a sort of disciplinary response from the club. But that’s just speculation, with Pochettino revealing that he’s talked to Noni about all this already.

“He is working hard to try and recover,. He came back from the national break 10 days ago. Now he is well. He is trying to be on the same level as the team.

“This video, we were talking about that, it’s a thing you need to avoid. All of the players need to know that when you are a player of Chelsea, you need to avoid these things. It wasn’t a big issue, but we need to avoid these types of situation. He is recovering from the national team and we will see if he is fit.”

-Mauricio Pochettino; source: Football.London

Sounds like it’s been handled, as it should be.

Young players will (be more likely to) make mistakes, on or off the pitch. Part of our challenge is to help them grow out of that and grow into consistent performers and excellent decision-makers — on and off the pitch.