"Tottenham's circumstances were completely different from what you expect to find at a club like Tottenham today. They were a team with 33 players, was a team trying to create an identity, to change the period that they were building until then."
Mauricio Pochettino's verdict on what he walked into at White Hart Lane in 2013 has some eerie similarities to the setting that he could be coming into at Chelsea should he be made the club's next head coach. From the bloated squad to wasted transfer funds and a lack of identity, this is something he believes he has already done before.
Speaking as an out of work boss in 2020, Pochettino's words about Spurs at the time will ring true in the minds of Chelsea fans currently. After sacking Graham Potter the owners are looking for their third permanent head coach in under 12 months.
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Before Pochettino in north London Spurs had gone through three in three years at a turbulent time for the club. The Blues are in a similar boat and need someone to steady the ship and give it some direction.
There are questions from fans over whether a manager without a trophy outside of Paris Saint-Germain that hasn't been in a job for nearly a year is the right man to take on the pressure and expectation that comes with inheriting one of the most expensively assembled squads in world football.
Given the attention on Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital, Spurs are no match for the scrutiny experienced at Chelsea. Pochettino's principles stay the same though and as a guest on Monday Night Football over two years ago, the Argentine explained: "That's why they [Tottenham] find a young coaching staff, new manager, to try to develop a different way to approach games.
"In the same way I talk about Southampton, for us Tottenham was amazing. More than five years that we really enjoyed. People like Joe Lewis, Daniel Levy and all the boardroom and the people and staff that were helping from day one for us to be successful.
"Then the players. They were amazing too. We found a group with different habits. The players aren't responsible for the habits they adopt sometimes. Not sometimes, always it's who leads the club, who lead today the company because football clubs are companies."
It is already the type of stance on a club, working within a heirarchy and joined up way of thinking that would attract Boehly and Co, that's without his track record of success on a budget in England. Chelsea are searching not just for an elite tactician - otherwise Julian Nagelsmann may well already be sitting in the dugout and Thomas Tuchel wouldn't have been sacked.
The owners are looking for a boss the set the club in a direction after losing its own sense of culture over the past 12 months and before even that in some senses too. When it comes to doing just that, Pochettino has outlined how best to go at it.
"They need to be strong," he added. "How you want to create the habit and to translate the principles to your team. The players are important because they put the principles out onto the pitch. Then you need to create the line from the top.
"Be strong in your principles you're going to develop for the thing happening in the way that you want. That was amazing, to feel free, to create something special at Tottenham."
Pochettino further explained: "When you arrive at a new club you need to make some changes. If you arrive in the beginning, easier. If you arrive in the middle, the same, start to build, that's why it's so important to create a big platform and that is what we really believe.
"The coaching staff is to create that platform where the player can feel comfortable and can improve."
It is, like many things, easier to say than to do and talking a good talk is only the start of the process but given Pochettino's connected vision for any club it's not hard to see why Chelsea are so attracted to him as a manager.
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