Mauricio Pochettino is set to start his role as Chelsea manager on July 1st. This summer is challenging, with rumors of up to ten first-team players under the threat of sale in what would be a mass exodus after finishing twelfth in the 2022/23 season.
Pochettino will have his hands full in the next few weeks – from gearing up for preseason to helping craft the squad with the directors, Mauricio will be busy.
Here are five things Pochettino should focus on this summer :
- Getting Levi Colwill on board, happy, and to convince him to sign a long-term deal with Chelsea.
Chelsea young starlet Levi Colwill has made headlines over the last few months with stellar performances for Brighton. The seagulls have already had a £30m bid from Chelsea rejected. He has also been called up to the England senior team just recently.
Let’s face it, huge talents can have an ego to them and it’s on Pochettino to manage it. If the gaffer places trust in him early it’ll go a long way in getting the prodigy to sign a 5-7 year contract and commit his future to Chelsea.
I’m not always the type to bend over backward for Cobham prospects, but Colwill is certainly worth it.
Chelsea have done everything right in terms of publicly rejecting Brighton’s advances, but now it’s time to prove it to Colwill by showing him a real pathway by guaranteeing him playing time, attention, and the big contract.
- Leading the mass exodus of players.
After the season Chelsea had, it’s probably right that Clearlake and the new board have decided to purge the squad and rebuild the team.
N’golo Kante heading to Saudi Arabia will be a blow to the team, but on a positive note that frees up over £300K a week in wages.
There are concrete talks for Mason Mount, Kai Havertz, and Kovacic to make moves to direct Premier League rivals.
Players like Pulisic, Ziyech, Mendy, Loftus Cheek and Aubameyang have also been deemed surplus to requirements. It’s also a possibility that players like Chalobah and Gallagher are sold as pure profit homegrown players.
It remains to be seen what levers Clearlake will be able to pull off to offload players like Koulibaly and Lukaku that are on mammoth £300K p/w wages, but it’ll be good business to drop our egos & cut our losses with them.
Pochettino will likely have a lot of say, so it’s on him to help us spearhead the departures and trim the squad with players he believes have no future at Chelsea.
- Creating a healthy relationship with the owners but with boundaries.
Pochettino getting the Chelsea job was a surprise to many as his name was under the radar. What likely brought him this far was him seeing eye to eye with the owners and board on many topics.
The club did their due diligence, so I’m sure there was mutual respect, views, and desire to work together. In my opinion, the owners had their moments where they “power tripped” but I also think they’ll have learned from the experiences so far and mistakes.
Pochettino doesn’t give me the sentiment that he’ll let the club walk all over him and make squad decisions without his opinion, so it’s about staying on the same page.
Pochettino is well respected within the game and I don’t see this as a Potter situation in terms of being a “yes man”. It’s on them to collaborate, and work together in a healthy way for the transfer market and fixing the squad.
- Get Christopher Nkunku firing right away.
Chelsea getting Nkunku across the line for €60M is set to be a brilliant piece of business as long as the French forward fulfills his potential at Stamford Bridge.
His market value is probably closer to €100M so we are talking about a massive player joining Chelsea. With Joao Felix returning back to Atletico, the number spot is right there for Nkunku should Pochettino decide to play him there.
I personally believe that Nkunku could also play higher up the pitch and score a lot of goals, but whatever happens I just want to see production. Eye tests and things that aren’t shown on the stat sheet are very important, but at the same time simply put we need G/A from Nkunku at all cost.
Chelsea had a scoring drought last season and Nkunku has the capability to be a game-changer and unlock our attack’s true potential.
- Instilling confidence into Mudryk.
During the interviewing and hiring process, Mykhailo Mudryk’s need for development would have definetly been mentioned as one of the many key points.
While I don’t know how concrete that is, I think it’s important for the 22 year old winger to get back on track and have a good start to the 2023-2024 campaign. It’s been said that Mudryk is a sensitive person, and going 17 appearances without a goal for Chelsea could have put a dent in his confidence.
In order for the Ukrainian starlet to become the player Chelsea shilled out €70M + bonus for, he’s going to have to put the ball in the back of the net and create havoc on opposition back-lines.
Pochettino needs to put the time and energy into getting Mudryk to buy into his methods so he can play free knowing that the gaffer has his back 110%.
