Chelsea hoping to agree new head coaching appointment ‘in the next 10 days’ — report

Chelsea’s managerial shortlist is down to just three candidates after Julian Nagelsmann withdrew from contention yesterday, with Mauricio Pochettino the clear front-runner now (official or not) and possibly the only realistic option. The other name on the list is Vincent Kompany, who’s not at all proven, while the third name is still yet to be revealed.

The Telegraph’s latest report mentions Feyenoord manager Arne Slot as a potential name for that ... slot, but that seems fairly random shot in the dark. Ex-River Plate boss Marcelo Gallardo has also lobbied for consideration, while Hansi Flick showed up randomly at the Bridge that one time. Loved/hated ex-Chelsea trio of Antonio Conte, José Mourinho, and Carlo Ancelotti have also been mentioned in Twitter circles, but are unlikely to get any closer than that (and two of them are gainfully employed and in the latter rounds of European competitions at the moment).

And considering that we’re hoping to start wrapping up this search soon, new candidates are unlikely to emerge from the fog at this point. The report claims that our powers that be are “hoping to agree an appointment in the next 10 days”.

So, I guess better start making your peace with Poch. He “over-achieved at Tottenham” while dealing with an overbearing hierarchy and “the fact Pochettino has not won a trophy in England is not expected to count against him in the eyes of Chelsea, who may believe he would have even more motivation to win silverware with the Blues because of that”.

We’ll make a winner out of him yet!

“When we arrived [...] Tottenham was a team with 33 players, was a team that was trying to create some identity and that was why they hired maybe a young coaching staff and manager and to try and develop different ways to approach the games.

“[We] had a group with different habits, the players were not responsible for the habits they adopted, it’s always who leads the club. Then, you need to create the line from the top and to be strong in your principle and the way you’re going to develop and lead the way things happen.”

-Mauricio Pochettino; November 2020

Pochettino’s hour-long appearance on Jake Humphrey’s High Performance podcast is also worth your time to get to know the man a bit more beyond just that scarlet Spurs letter on him.