Mauricio Pochettino must have heard all the jokes about Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali on the football circuit by now.
There’s the nickname “Todd Lasso,” referring to a hapless, naive American who brings his own wisdom, or, in the case of Boehly and Eghbali, their analysis of multimillion-dollar investment funds, to English football, with mixed results.
Or the one that starts, ‘How many sporting directors does it take to sign a functioning centre-forward?’
In Chelsea’s case, the answer is four. Or, to be more precise, two sports directors, a technical director and a co-director of recruitment and talent, that is the structure Boehly and Eghbali put in place to run the club.
He will also have heard exactly what happened in the Boehly team talk after the 2-1 defeat to Brighton, when the Chelsea owner addressed the side and individual star signings, saying: ‘This isn’t good enough. This is not what we brought you to the club for.’
Chelsea have yet to confirm Mauricio Pochettino as the club’s new manager after weeks of speculation
The Argentinian has a tough job tackling a motionless ship when he gets the job
Pochettino is said to have heard the jokes about Chelsea’s two co-controlling owners
He may have even heard some players react to the Boehly pep talk with personal contempt, though others say it was a well-received and understandable demonstration of an owner’s passion.
Interim manager Frank Lampard may have been fine with it, though he’s not really in a position to argue with the billionaire boyhood club that temporarily employed him. But Pochettino has more influence. Chelsea needs him.
And yet he’s clearly not a shoo-in for the job, or else he’d have it by now. Chelsea had the chance to appoint him in September and went on for Graham Potter.
Co-sports directors Lawrence Stewart and Paul Winstanley are spearheading this recruiting process, and while interviews have taken place, contract talks with Pochettino have not yet begun.
Chelsea are still settling for a candidate. No announcement is expected for Tuesday’s Arsenal game, although contract terms could be discussed before then.
They should arrange this properly. Internally, the debate will be about which manager best fits their model. Potter’s did it perfectly: great guy to work with, in sync with the owners, receptive to their recruiting plan. So all good except for the 11 defeats and eight draws in 31 games.
Perhaps they’ll notice Pochettino significantly improve that record while proving to be a tougher client in the “great guy to work with” department.
Not because he’s unpleasant. But he does challenge. Boehly and Eghbali have appointed their foursome of sports advisors to take the lead in signing players.
Part of his job will be to get much better performance out of the talent the club has spent millions on
Chelsea have had a disastrous season and it will be up to Pochettino to turn their fortunes around
The owners have a model, largely based on data, with which they believe they can beat the football market. They have £600 million in and are unlikely to hand that over to Pochettino or any other manager now.
The club would emphasize that this process would always be collaborative and that the manager is an integral part of it.
No one would sign a player the manager doesn’t want, it is said. But Pochettino isn’t the man to quietly nod when someone explains that the data suggests he’s signing an Eredivisie teenage winger if he decides he’s not going to make it.
Pochettino has a hard-won and well-deserved track record of developing young players, just like Potter, but he only works with players he thinks are good enough.
At the moment Chelsea is a team with no direction. Five games, five defeats and one goal under Lampard tell the story: Chelsea are a group of leaderless young men in desperate need of a clear line of authority.
And for that, in addition to charisma, involvement with the media and creating emotional bonds with his players, the Argentine is there with Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Diego Simeone and Jurgen Klopp.
He is not so much a manager with an arm around his shoulder as a coach with a hug.
He’ll greet you with a smile and put his arms around you – if he could get away with it in Anglo-Saxon culture, he’d give an Argentinian-style kiss on the cheek, before sharing a partner (a bitter South American tea) to talk a player through his form.
Graham Potter was a ‘great guy’ to work with – the owners may not find Pochettino that pliable
But he is also a cantankerous individual when needed. He once called in his Spurs team when Kyle Walker showed up late for a pre-season.
They had lost the last game of the season 5-0 at relegated Newcastle, so he admitted the anger had simmered all summer. And when Walker later told him he wanted a move, he blocked him from the team and revealed the details in a book.
There will be the iron eye of Jesus Perez, his trusted No. 2 and fitness coach, who will ensure everyone is as fit as an Olympic middle-distance runner. Even Walker admits that it was Pochettino who “taught me to take care of myself, to eat well and to rest.”
Luke Shaw was transformed into the best young left-back in the Premier League by Perez and Pochettino at Southampton.
Harry Kane’s journey to becoming one of the greatest centre-forwards in the world began with a conversation with Pochettino in 2014 about why he wasn’t in the team.
“He said my body fat was high, I wasn’t pushing as hard as I could, and that was it!” Kane said. “Maybe other managers would try to beat around the bush, but he said, ‘You have to do this and this and that’s why you’re not on the team.'”
The Argentinian can be grumpy if he wants to, as Tottenham has shown on several occasions
Harry Kane’s development into one of the world’s best No 9’s began under his tutelage
There’s still plenty to be had from Pochettino’s £107 million compatriot Enzo Fernandez
But what Pochettino takes with one hand, he gives with the other. Kane recalls Pochettino also telling him he could be the best striker in the world long before he was really part of that debate.
Some younger players at Chelsea could benefit from Perez-Pochettino’s fitness regime right now.
There will also be the summer cleanup to oversee. Not many of us have Boehly and Eghbali’s head for numbers, but we can calculate that if you spend £600m and lose the £100m plus in Champions League revenue you anticipated you have a big hole in your budget, with financially fair rules lurking.
The type of players Pochettino would like to work with, Mason Mount and Conor Gallagher, could well leave for Liverpool and Newcastle respectively (Chelsea will try again to persuade Mount to stay, but he only has one year left on his contract).
Mateo Kovacic (Bayern Munich), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Barcelona), Hakim Ziyech (PSG) and Christian Pulisic are likely to leave. Trevoh Chalobah may also leave.
If Pochettino gets the job, there will be no Kane or Kylian Mbappé to take the lead. His first-choice centre-forward has already been chosen in Christopher Nkunku, who joins from RB Leipzig.
His wide players are Mykhailo Mudryk and Raheem Sterling. N’Golo Kante, if fit and given a new contract, would be the basis of the midfield, but Pochettino needs to coax £107m worth of performances from compatriot Enzo Fernandez.
Kyle Walker and Danny Rose were transformed into two of the Premier League’s best full-backs – before the former was sent off
There are still a number of players to join Chelsea, including Christopher Nkunku
Romelu Lukaku, Ethan Ampadu, Levi Colwill, Ian Maatsen and Tiemoue Bakayoko all return from loan spells.
Colwill and Maatsen are expected to take office. Others, notably Lukaku, face an uncertain future. Would a center forward definitely be recruited if Lukaku returns to Inter?
What’s on offer is the mother of all clean-up jobs, cleaning up the mess of Roman Abramovich’s last few wayward transfer windows, the grueling effect of sanctions and reducing the £600m man to a manageable squad.
The winning candidate will be the man most likely to make Todd Lasso look as smart as he sounds.