Mauricio Pochettino CAN’T blame his predecessors for poor atmosphere at Stamford Bridge, argues Ian Ladyman on It’s All Kicking Off… it’s his team and his football Chelsea fans are watching

Mail Sport football editor Ian Ladyman has insisted that Mauricio Pochettino is to blame for the flat atmosphere at Stamford Bridge this season – rather than his predecessors at Chelsea – at It all starts.

The Argentina manager was outraged by a comment from former Chelsea player Pat Nevin about the lackluster atmosphere in west London ahead of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Middlesbrough.

The Blues icon compared Stamford Bridge to a ‘mausoleum’, but Pochettino suggested that in a sense the club are ‘now paying (for) the 18-month effect’.

Chelsea have endured a torrid 2022-2023 season that saw four separate managers in the dugout, including Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter, but despite feeling like a more stable team under Pochettino, they have yet to recapture the blistering form that saw they were firmly among the English top class. ‘Big Six’.

But rather than look to the past, Ladyman was quick to suggest on Thursday’s Mail Sport podcast that the lackluster atmosphere in west London was a reflection of Chelsea’s current form under the head coach himself.

Champions League-winning head coach Thomas Tuchel was fired at the start of the 2022-2023 season

He was followed in the dugout by Graham Potter, who remained at the club for a dismal seven months

‘When Chelsea fans go to Stanford Bridge and don’t sound like they’re into it, and don’t sound like they’re enjoying it, and don’t make any noise, and every sound they make is the wrong type of noise, that comes from Pochettino and his players,” Ladyman told his co-host Chris Sutton.

‘That has nothing to do with Graham Potter and Thomas Tuchel.’

However, Sutton placed the responsibility more firmly on Chelsea’s new owner, led by co-controlling owner Todd Boehly.

The takeover in May 2022 – following the hasty sale of the club by sanctioned Russian petrochemical billionaire Roman Abramovich – is seen as a major turning point in the club’s recent history.

“(The atmosphere problem) could be a combination of everything,” Sutton argued. “I think this all has to do with Todd Boehly, if the truth be told.”

Using the analogy of a Michelin-starred restaurant spending money and bringing in new chefs – and expecting the food to be of the same standard – Sutton suggested the club needed to exercise patience in waiting for results.

“Pochettino has gone in and it has taken time and you can see they are getting there slowly. But with the success they had over the past two decades under the Abramovich regime when he owned the restaurant, things are different under Boehly.

“The damage was done by Todd Boehly and the Chelsea fans still don’t really believe what happened under him.”

Continuing the same theme, however, Ladyman could not agree with the expert.

The almost uninterrupted success of former owner Roman Abramovich is difficult to follow

Co-controlling Todd Boehly has been blamed for poor form and rampant spending since his role in the 2022 takeover

‘If I go to a restaurant near where I live and it’s under new management and the food is bad, the service is bad, the wine is corked and the heating is too high, I blame the manager in charge ,’ Ladyman hit back.

“I don’t blame that guy before. So I don’t understand why Pochettino could blame the bad atmosphere at Stamford Bridge on someone else’s football. This is his football, it’s his team. It’s nonsense.’

“You can’t deny that there hasn’t been a domino effect because of the takeover and Tuchel and how that ended, and you know, Tuchel was tough, but they didn’t get along in every respect, Tuchel and Boehly, Tuchel is a talented man,” Sutton replied.

‘But then Graham Potter came in and got an opportunity. But the football was disappointing by Chelsea standards.”

But Ladyman thought he could ultimately prove his point with the capital’s example at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The appointment of Ange Postecoglou last summer has had a transformative effect on the Spurs fanbase, not only in terms of results, but also in breathing new life into the club following the ignominious sacking of Antonio Conte and the departure of team talisman Harry Kane.

“The hangover from Conte’s football at Tottenham lasted about a fortnight when Postecoglou came through the door,” Ladyman said.

‘Pochettino has not succeeded at Chelsea. It’s not necessarily his fault. He didn’t succeed. So if ultimately only one person is responsible for this, it’s him.’

But Chelsea looked like old times again on Tuesday, thanks to a convincing 6-1 victory

Noni Madueke (centre) scored Chelsea’s last to book them a place in the Carabao Cup final

What Pochettino was able to do with his Chelsea team, however, was treat the players to a spectacle at Stamford Bridge in Tuesday’s second leg.

The Blues trailed 1-0 after a disappointing first leg at Riverside but romped to victory – and a place in the final at Wembley – in a six-goal defeat to their Championship opponents.

“I’m desperate for a title here,” Pochettino said after the final whistle. ‘We have won three prizes in Paris in a year and a half and we want to win here.

‘I’m obviously desperate to win. It’s very important to us.’