It would be the biggest personnel switch between North London and Stamford Bridge since Ashley made the move to Chelsea from Arsenal after nearly swerving his car off the road in shock at the £55,000 weekly wage being offered by the latter. It would provide the storyline of the summer.
Indeed, it would be remarkable were Mauricio Pochettino to pitch up at Chelsea as their new manager this summer, with the Blues reported to be weighing up an approach for the Spurs boss. From Chelsea’s point of view, it’s easy to see why they would want the Argentine. Pochettino is, after all, one of the best young coaches in the European game right now. And he’s still on an upward trajectory.
But from Pochettino’s point of view, there’s nothing to suggest he could achieve more at Chelsea than he already can at Chelsea. The Argentine has made a series of cryptic comments in recent weeks regarding his own future at Spurs, demanding that the club back him in the transfer market this summer. Pochettino himself has raised the possibility that he could leave Spurs sooner rather than later.
“I have very clear ideas of what we need to do,” Pochettino explained last week. “I don’t know if the club will agree with me or not. We are going to talk next week to create the new project. It is a little bit up to Daniel and the club to agree with us. If we want to be real contenders for big trophies, we need to review a little bit the thing.”
And so Chelsea are maybe just doing their due diligence in checking on Pochettino’s availability. It would be remiss of them not to. But Chelsea are currently suffering many of the same problems Pochettino has suffered from at Spurs. Antonio Conte will likely leave Stamford Bridge this summer and at the forefront of his frustrations is the Blues’ inability to compete for the very best players at the top of the transfer market.
Of course, Chelsea still have more financial might than their North London rivals, but not enough to carry them to the top of the Premier League any time soon, with Manchester City and Manchester United possess enough financial clout to blow both teams out of the water. That dynamic wouldn’t change were Pochettino to make the move across London.
A decade ago, the situation would have been very different. Chelsea, at that time, were changing the face of English football with their oil billions, spending their way to trophy after trophy. But the Premier League has moved past this point in its history. Chelsea and Spurs now find themselves in a similar place. Pochettino, in many ways, would be swapping like for like.
