There is a bullishness to Mauricio Pochettino as he holds court at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Chicago and talks about his plans to turn Chelsea into winners again. The Argentinian is in a hurry, a man whose time at Paris Saint-Germain has taught him never to take anything for granted, and he is not in a mood to make excuses. The aim is to hit the ground running, even though another summer of change at Stamford Bridge has left Chelsea with a squad packed with unproven young talent, and the main focus for Pochettino is making sure his new side are ready for Liverpool next weekend.
“We are building something special,” Chelsea’s head coach says, acknowledging that the club’s recruitment team are in the middle of a major rebuild after the shock of last season’s underperformance. “It’s a process and we need time. But in football you cannot ask for time and you need to deliver now. We are Chelsea and, even if we have young players involved against Liverpool, the mentality is to win.”
