Gary Neville has tipped Mauricio Pochettino to transform Chelsea with the Argentine close to being confirmed as the new boss at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues, languishing in 12 th in the Premier League, have had four different managers this campaign, with Thomas Tuchel replaced by Graham Potter in September. Yet the former Brighton manager’s recent dismissal saw Bruno Saltor oversee first-team affairs for one game before Frank Lampard was appointed as interim boss.
Lampard became the club’s first manager to lose each of his opening four matches in the hotseat before his miserable time in the dugout continued this week as Brentford inflicted a fifth successive defeat for the Blues with a two-goal victory at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.
Yet Neville insists that Pochettino will relish the challenge of working with this group of Chelsea players, who are a squad that has had over £550million in transfer fees spent on it over the past year and clearly are a very talented group of individuals, if not currently team cohesion.
“Chelsea played Liverpool and there was something in that game that you saw in that collection of players and you thought they could be brought together by a talented coach,” Neville explained, speaking on The Overlap.
“Pochettino I think is a really talented coach and I think Chelsea next year could really cause a surprise, just by Pochettino bringing the club together because he will. He’s likeable and the players will respect him enormously.
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“He has worked at PSG and worked with big players, worked at Tottenham, worked at Southampton where he did a great job.”
Neville continued, looking ahead to his rumoured appointment at the Blues: “I think he’ll do a very, very good job next season and he’ll cover a lot of the stuff that’s going on behind the scenes. Those players are perfect for Pochettino. Talented, young but just needing direction.
“I wanted Pochettino at United, that’s not to say I didn’t want Erik ten Hag. It was close and I’m happy we’ve got Ten Hag I think he’s done brilliantly well but Pochettino is a top coach who I’d be happy having at my club.”
Pochettino led Tottenham to three successive top three league finishes – including second spot in the 2016/17 campaign – alongside guiding Spurs to their first ever Champions League final in 2019. He had previously been linked to the Manchester United job, but the club ultimately chose to appoint Erik ten Hag.
The Argentine subsequently spent a season-and-a-half at Paris Saint-Germain prior to his sacking at the end of last season. Pochettino has been out of football for 11 months, despite having led PSG to the Ligue 1 title in his one full season at the helm. His failures with the club on the European stage ultimately sealed his fate in Paris.
