Once again last night, after Chelsea beat Leeds United, Mauricio Pochettino had a chance to go out on the pitch and clap the fans. Something that goes a long way in creating a connection with the fanbase. But just like he has done all season so far, he didn’t even think about doing it.
And this for me, is his biggest issue right now.
THE most important thing that any Chelsea manager must do in order to succeed at this club is to first create a connection with the fan base.
Graham Potter was completely doomed pretty much from the off because he failed to do this. And now, Mauricio Pochettino has also become doomed here because he has failed to do this.
I’m not stupid, I know that better results would also help with this. But there is so much more than Pochettino could have done to create that connection and so much he has done to distance it.
I honestly do not see a way back from this for Pochettino, even if there is a consistent uptick in results and performances. Many Chelsea fans would never have accepted him anyway due to the ‘Spursy’ thing, a lot like many of them would have never accepted Rafa Benitez when he was manager here. But even the most patient of fans are starting to realise that there might not be a way back for Pochettino at this club now and in all honesty, he is continuing to dig his own grave in that sense.
Football is a results-based business. Clubs need to earn and make money, and that is done by getting results on the pitch and getting into Europe. Of course, the pressure and noise would ease off Pochettino massively if we win more games and show more consistency, that’s just obvious. But I also think that for many, Pochettino has dug a hole so deep that he cannot get back out.
Photo by Chelsea FC via Getty Images
We’ve seen inconsistent and contradictive press conferences from him on a weekly basis and his mentality is proving to be far too weak. Nobody wants to keep hearing that we are in a project and we need patience. We all know this fact. We don’t want to keep hearing that Arsenal did this, Liverpool did that blah blah blah. Just because we are in a project it doesn’t mean we can not expect a higher league position than 11th in March!
We should have won the final on Sunday and maybe if we did things would be different right now and I even admit maybe I wouldn’t be writing this. And this is because I am one of the few now who don’t even believe that Pochettino has been ‘bad’ at this club. I’ve seen isolated improvements, and I’ve seen things starting to come together. I’ve seen improved squad mentality and rapport. For me, there has been signs of some progress albeit not consistent enough. The only thing that’s relevant though is league position and success.
There is NO way anyone can convince me that Pochettino has done ‘an amazing job’ at Chelsea. How anyone can claim that is beyond belief and if someone tells me that, I’ll respectfully tell you that you’re deluded.
Believe it or not, it was Pochettino who has said this only this week, and for me, that just makes the crater between me and him as a fan personally, even wider. The connection is dead and buried, and that’s completely on him.
Speaking on the future this week and whether he will be kept on at Chelsea, Pochettino said: “Whether I am here or not – it depends on my job and I think we are doing an amazing job – but we cannot see greater result but I think with time we are going to have an amazing team because we are young, we are learning, we create something that is starting to appear on the training ground.”
And instead of chatting about Liverpool or Manchester City and trying to compare their situations with our own, how about take some damn accountability and STOP insulting our intelligence!
We’ve had some good results this season, some good games. So why then has he not gone out onto the pitch and celebrated them and clapped the fans? That is the perfect opportunity to build a connection with the fan base, yet he refuses to do it. Why?
Every time he speaks he buries himself even more.
He always plays the victim card and always makes excuses, and the fan base are completely tired of that. We don’t need to hear how close we were to winning a game or how injuries have messed us up or if we took chances we would have won the game. No sh*t! Football is fine margins, we know that. We are not stupid and do not deserve our intelligence to be insulted, and we do not need to be treated like kids who know nothing about this sport or the business. We do actually. In fact, many of us in this community know more than some at the club right now!
We do not need to be spoken down to or patronised. That just angers the fan base even more. Pochettino has often patronised us, the club have patronised us via media briefs, and all that is doing is just widening the connection between them and the fans. If they do that and create a firm divide, then that is when the fan warfare will really begin, and that will be a massive mistake for them all. Fans at games or literally on edge, it’s been so toxic at Stamford Bridge recently that I fear how it might go if we get more poor results.
Mauricio Pochettino
Just because we have expectations as a fan base, it doesn’t mean we don’t understand the position this club is in. We have standards at this club, and whether we are in a project or not, we expect those standards to be adhered to. None of us are stuck in 05’ or anything stupid like that. We know things change. We know this club has been turned inside out. We don’t need to be petulantly told that by the likes of The Athletic on a weekly basis like we are all stupid. We understand. But once again, we simply MUST see consistent progress and improvements to buy into all of that, and although we have seen it in pockets this season, it’s not been enough to convince us and surely anyone with sense can understand that?
Pochettino has created a bigger divide between him and the fan base than anyone else right now and really as I say, I don’t see a way back for him unless he really changes his persona, is much smarter and speaks real facts in press conferences rather than excuses and victimising himself, and he gets a more consistent tune out of these players and sets up bravely rather than cautiously. You are a head coach, so coach your team. If you want them further up the pitch in extra time in a cup final, the bloody tell them that!!
I’m not ignoring the bigger problems at this club by the way and have spoken about them a lot as well. This is far from my pinning all the blame on Pochettino, or on any single person or people. I don’t dislike him. I actually think he has done well to build team spirit and form a more united Chelsea with the players. The man-management side has been great. I wanted Pochettino from the off, I was vocal with that. I even still feel a bit sorry for him because he wasn’t backed at all by the club.
But I never expected him to drive such a wedge between himself and the fan base and all bar a small portion, he has well and truly done that in recent weeks and unfortunately this partnership is now doomed.