Mauricio Pochettino has agreed to take over as Chelsea’s new head coach after extensive talks with the Stamford Bridge club.
Chelsea have been looking for a new manager since firing Graham Potter last month. Pochettino will be the third permanent manager to work under the Todd Boehly-Clearlake capital ownership since they bought the club last year. Nothing has been signed yet but confirmation of the Argentinian’s appointment should come soon.
Pochettino, out of work since leaving Paris Saint-Germain last summer, emerged as the favourite after Chelsea held talks with the former Barcelona and Spain manager Luis Enrique and Julian Nagelsmann, who was sacked by Bayern Munich in March.
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The former Tottenham manager will need patience as Chelsea look to rebuild after a difficult season. The 51-year-old will inherit a bloated squad at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea, who will not be in Europe next season, have spent close to £600m on new signings in the past year. They will need to sell players this summer.
Chelsea hired Potter from Brighton after firing Thomas Tuchel – now Nagelsmann’s successor at Bayern – in September. Potter struggled to make his presence felt and Chelsea, who are facing the prospect of finishing in the bottom half, ended up installing Frank Lampard as interim head coach last month. Lampard lost his first six matches before winning at Bournemouth last weekend then drawing at home to Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
Pochettino, who played 20 times for Argentina, moved into management in January 2009 with Espanyol, for whom he had played more than 250 times. Just under four years later he was sacked but quickly took over at Southampton. He kept them up then delivered an eighth-placed finish in 2013-14, which attracted the attention of Tottenham.
He achieved third place in 2016 and second 12 months later. He followed that up by taking Spurs to the 2019 Champions League final but they lost that 2-0 to Liverpool and he was sacked five months later. He joined PSG in January 2021.
