Todd Boehly continues to learn on the job as Chelsea co-owner after Mauricio Pochettino was confirmed as the new head coach for the upcoming season. After a deal was agreed between the two parties earlier in the month, the Argentine was finally announced less than 24 hours after Frank Lampard's last game as interim boss.
Pochettino, who became the preferred candidate for the job after Julian Nagelsmann and Luis Enrique were ruled out of the running during an exhaustive and thorough process, will now have a full pre-season to prepare for a big summer. Chelsea are expected to go through major change with a mass exodus of players following the announcement of the new manager.
It is a process of clearing out the heavily bloated squad that many will say needed to happen last year. Since then, Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter have been moved on as the Stamford Bridge hot seat looked as unstable as ever. There has been a distinct change of direction here, though.
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Whereas Potter was an unproven, inexperienced option at the top level, Pochettino has been managing clubs competing for some of Europe's biggest honours for nearly eight years. That isn't to say that everything else is the same.
Potter was backed on a mammoth five year deal with the option to add a sixth. It was the largest contract in the world for a manager, worth around £12m-a-year and that came after the Blues' owners paid over £20m to bring him in from Brighton in September 2022.
Pochettino, who has been out of work for nearly 12 months following his departure from Paris Saint-Germain, has a much shorter initial deal, being handed a two-year contract with the option to extend that by a third year. Starting officially on July 1, Pochettino will now have to earn an extension, as is standard for managers.
It was a sign of faith from Boehly in Potter but one that massively backfired after a spiralling run of form saw him sacked less than eight months into it. The long contract isn't a new phenomena in the opening year of Boehly's reign either. He, alongside Behdad Eghbali, have handed out multiple long-term deals to new signings, keeping several at the club past 2030.
It is a risky strategy to take, though, and the downside to it has already been shown with expensive compensation packages and tricky negotiations when looking to break from the agreement. With Pochettino's much shorter initial term, Boehly appears to have learnt his lesson on this one.
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