A new era at Chelsea is almost upon us. On July 1, which is just over a month away, Mauricio Pochettino will officially start his new job role as first-team head coach at Stamford Bridge.
After weeks of negotiations between the 51-year-old and Chelsea, the club finally announced on Monday afternoon that Pochettino would take over from Frank Lampard at the beginning of July – just in time for pre-season to start. Pochettino has signed a two-year contract with Chelsea but there is an option for a further 12 months should the two parties agree.
Chelsea will be hoping that option is indeed triggered as they view Pochettino as the ideal man to spearhead their ambitious long-term project at Stamford Bridge. To do that, though, the Argentine will need a lot of time to get his ideas across to his new squad. There's so much to fix at Chelsea and it certainly won't happen overnight.
READ MORE: Chelsea make another major decision behind the scenes following Mauricio Pochettino appointment
Pochettino has experience and somewhat of a pedigree of working with talented young players and getting the best out of them; something Chelsea will need considering the youth they have in their squad at the moment. The average age of their huge 32-man squad – that will be trimmed down substantially over the summer transfer window – is 25.5.
The soon-to-be Chelsea head coach has worked with some fantastic young talents, not least Harry Kane, when the former Tottenham manager arrived at White Hart Lane. Back then, Kane, who is now the captain of England, was just 20 years old and largely inexperienced in senior football. He had been handed his Premier League debut just months before by former Spurs boss Tim Sherwood.
Kane was very highly-rated at Tottenham and was clearly a confident young man, as he told Pochettino that he deserved to be playing more first-team football. Pochettino, though, was brutal in his response – something that perhaps proved a turning point in Kane's career, even to this day.
Writing in a column for The Athletic last year, Pochettino said: "One of the turning points in Harry Kane's career came a few weeks into my first season as Tottenham managed. I had started with Emmanuel Adebayor and Roberto Soldado as our two first-choice strikers – great players, senior players, and deserving of respect.
"Harry was only starting in the Europa League. On September 18, we played at Partizan Belgrade, but Harry struggled and we drew 0-0. Three days later, when we played West Bromwich Albion in the Premier League, I didn't even put him on the bench.
"That week, Harry came to see me and my coaching staff. He thought he deserved to play more. We showed Harry, with video clips and with stats, that he was wrong.
"We showed him running stats, the positioning of shots, everything we could find. Because if a player has played poorly, it's important for them to realise why we as coaches thing they have.
"We had to show Harry he still needed to improve in different areas. He was heading in the right direction, but he still needed to wait and to prove to us he was better than his teammates and that he deserved to start. He needed to prove we could trust him like we trusted the more experienced strikers.
"It was a really tough conversation, but it was also a really good conversation. Players never want to be told the truth. And from my perspective, it's never easy when you have to tell a player they're wrong. But it was a really valuable conversation between Harry, my assistant coach Jesus Perez, and me, trying to help him by being tough on him."
The rest, as they say, is history. Almost a decade on and Kane is chasing Alan Shearer's all-time record of 260 goals in the Premier League. And you really wouldn't bet against him achieving just that.
As well as this, Kane has a great respect for Pochettino and the way he handled things during his time at Spurs. The two even have a great relationship off the pitch now.
"He was the boss, the leader, the one that set the standards in how he played and how we trained," Kane told the Evening Standard in 2021. "So friendship would never get in the way of what he did on the football side of things But we became friends in that the things we did and talked about went beyond football."
READ NEXT:
Mauricio Pochettino agrees with Todd Boehly on three priority transfers Chelsea must complete
Mauricio Pochettino first Chelsea signing revealed and it's not Christopher Nkunku
What Chelsea's £250m summer transfer gamble means for Mauricio Pochettino
Mauricio Pochettino reveals controversial plan for Christopher Nkunku as Chelsea take huge risk
Chelsea news and transfers LIVE: 'Done deal', Rice £95m offer, Ugarte talks, Nkunku plan
