Mauricio Pochettino has been named as Chelsea's new head coach on a two-year contract. After weeks of speculation, the cat is finally out of the bag and the former Spurs boss will take over as Chelsea head coach on July 1.
The Argentine coach brings with him a core group of staff he has worked with before. The 51-year-old former Tottenham and PSG chief is known to negotiate the contracts of his staff before his own and enjoys a close relationship with coaches who have been with him, to the extent one of them is his son. Pochettino has lived in the same hotels and remained close in more permanent accommodation, to ensure an intense bond between the group as they bid to drive the team they are at to the top.
Jesus Perez, Miguel D’Agostino, Sebastiano Pochettino and Toni Jimenez are all set to take up employment with the Blues. football.london takes a look at what each could bring.
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Jesus Perez - Pochettino's right-hand man, Perez may be the most visible of Pochettino's staff given his presence at press conferences, providing support to the head coach, and assumes a hands on role in directing players through warm-ups and showing players half time analysis.
Matt Lovell, formerly of Spurs, has described Perez as 'lovely' but 'fierce', while the coach is said to be fastidious in his knowledge of individuals. Perez has previously worked closely with sports science staff to tailor individual pre-season programmes, but like the other coaches enjoys a close relationship with Pochettino.
While much of the group enjoyed professional playing careers, Perez took a different route of studying sports science at university before working his way from non-league football to La Liga, holding roles as a fitness coach, general coach and even an academy director early on and being recruited to Espanyol's analysis set-up.
You can read an exclusive interview football.london conducted with Jesus Perez here
Miguel D'Agostino - Pochettino played with D'Agostino at Newell's Old Boys before the latter joined his former teammate's coaching ranks at Espanyol moving from scouting to helping to oversee player analysis. Previously, the 51-year-old has worked closely with players while providing some technical support to Pochettino.
Toni Jimenez - The goalkeeper coach can be recognised for some sideline outbursts and some of the eccentricities that are linked to being a shot-stopper but has proved a key help to Pochettino since his first job in coaching at Espanyol. Jimenez played with Pochettino at Espanyol and also completed his coaching qualifications alongside the soon-to-be Chelsea boss.
The goalkeeper coach helped Spain to an Olympic gold medal in the 1992 Olympics and played for Atletico Madrid and Elche in addition to Espanyol during his career. He first coached with Girona FC before making his return to Espanyol as a goalkeeper coach and eventually became an assistant to Pochettino at his succession of clubs.
Sebastiano Pochettino - The only member of this group to not work with Pochettino at Espanyol but that's forgivable given he joined Spurs he was just 22 when he was appointed as a first team sports scientist and fitness coach in 2016. He was a fitness coach at PSG under his father and would seem set to have a key role in overcoming Chelsea's physical issues that have become apparent.
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