Mauricio Pochettino says Chelsea must “move on” from their traumatic season with his aim being “to win” immediately.
The 51-year-old is backing himself to change the club’s fortunes quickly following a dreadful 12th-placed Premier League finish last season.
The Argentine met the media at Stamford Bridge days after work began to get to know his squad at Cobham Training Centre.
Pochettino is confident his players, and the supporters will put last season, where they had four different managers, behind them.
He said: “Not only the players but the staff, players and the fans can move on quickly. In football, you need to move on quickly. If not, you are dead.
“What I found, from day one, it is true this isn’t the whole squad, but the players are very open. The attitude is amazing. I always look to see the positive things.”
Chelsea will go without Europe next season and have seen 10 major senior players leave the club, while Christopher Nkunku and Nicolas Jackson have been added.
Despite the huge transition so soon into the summer, Pochettino does not want to limit his squad’s ambitions, adding: “My target is to win, my aim is to win.
“If you are in a club like Chelsea, you can’t talk about doing a nice job and playing well. Yes, of course, I can do a good job, play well and in our style and culture but, of course, to win.
“If you don’t win in a club like Chelsea, for sure, you are going to suffer. I don’t want to make excuses or talk about the past. It is only to win with the players that we have.
“We want to start to believe from day one, we started to work from Monday and we want to be the best and most competitive.
“For that, we have to work hard, work the players really, really hard and translate this energy to our fans who can help us win the games.”
He went on to describe what it will take to compete with Pep Guardiola’s treble-winning Manchester City side: “I want to congratulate Pep of course. What they achieved at Manchester City is unbelievable.
“I think we need to believe also that we can create good things. It is going to be tough but we need to believe we can compete with a team like Manchester City.”
