Mauricio Pochettino: Where Potter failed at Chelsea, he has passed, but won’t be for long

Chelsea fans were divided on Mauricio Pochettino when it was first announced that he would be the new permanent boss from next season when Frank Lampard steps aside as caretaker manager.

There were concerns that a man who managed Tottenham for five years and won no trophy would be their next manager after the hell seen under Graham Potter and a returning legend whose first stint was not that convincing.

His one-and-a-half season at Paris Saint-Germain might have given him a first taste of silverware but winning Ligue 1 with the Parisians appears normal; managers hardly get credits.

He replaced former Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel at PSG, and what was the German's pitfall stung Poch - inability to manage big egos in the dressing room, he had extra in his compatriot Lionel Messi, who performed poorly under him.

Potter's appointment at Chelsea looked like a failed project from the start. He had performed pretty well tactically at Brighton, but he came in with big boots to fill, in place of a Champions League winner, whom many fans believe was unfairly dismissed.

As transcribed by Evening Standard, his first words on the Blues chair hardly made mention of trophies; neither were there strong words, just a culmination of sentences to appease fans, players and owners' emotions.

Coming off the back of Roman Abramovich's reign as owner, a man who cares for trophies from his managers, such that when the slightest failure is spotted in winners, he dismisses them, the fans could not believe they are in to be fed statements irrelevant to what they used to know.

His in-game antics of clapping for every wrongdoing and post-match conference cliche of "the boys gave everything" after defeat further dug his grave.

wo of Chelsea's most successful managers, Jose Mourinho and Thomas Tuchel came in with statements that will remain in the hearts of the fans. Mourinho with the Special One tag, and Tuchel with a team nobody wants to play against.

“I have to say this, we have top players. I am sorry if I am a bit arrogant, we have a top manager. I am a European champion, I am not one of 'the bottle'. I think I am a special one,” Mourinho famously said in 2004.
"We want to create and constantly have on the pitch, that we are able to beat anybody and we're the team nobody wants to play against," Tuchel told Chelsea TV in 2021.