Pochettino to be Sacked

On the surface, the choice is clear-cut. After overcoming a challenging inaugural campaign as Chelsea's manager, Mauricio Pochettino has brought European football, two trips to Wembley, and a more thrilling style of football to Stamford Bridge. Though perhaps not exactly how many had envisioned, expectations have been satisfied for the most part.

But in truth, nothing at Chelsea is easy. Even a great campaign finale won't guarantee anything going into another pivotal summer.

The clearest example of it is the persistent discrepancy between what most people consider to be fair and what the owners anticipate. Had this not been the case, the coach would undoubtedly have had greater support from the general public.

Boehly gave a speech in America two weeks prior to the season's conclusion, discussing Chelsea's latest achievements. They had overcome a 2-0 deficit away at Aston Villa during a brief "two-and-a-half-game" run at the time, which included wins with Tottenham and West Ham.

Boehly did not give Pochettino a straight compliment, but he did call the football wonderful. A portion of his professional speech suggested that everything had been prearranged and that, following eight months of suffering, everything would fall into place.

Pochettino will feel a little sting from it. Though it's only fair that there were legitimate concerns about his team's management throughout extended stretches of the season, he has always been the one to step up when things were hard. However, when the form started to show, he wasn't given credit for it. It appears that there was a sentiment that Chelsea had waited too long to reach this point.

For instance, Pochettino was left out of the owner's pre-Bournemouth programme letter to supporters. Although there were some indications of appreciation for the recent success and references to effort from everyone in the women's squad and academy, there was not as much as direct support.

Pochettino appears to have taken exception at this, since he was asked about his future in the press many times a week over the last few weeks of the campaign. There's still no guarantee that he'll be at the club before the end of the month.

Due to a club that is not entirely linked through its chain of command, he has hinted that he could leave. Here is a group that now has dominant shareholders who live most of the time in America, but there is division over who is in charge of managing a bunch of athletic organizations and recruiting directors who might not all agree.

It is not surprising that there are frequently conflicting signals, or at the very least, no one thread that runs across everything. Pochettino views it as a diversion.

He has been forced to oversee a team that was mostly assembled during two recruitment windows over which he had very little or no influence. Regardless of quality or potential, he was given the youngest collection of players in the league and asked to assemble a squad that might contend for the top four.

The season's nearly hilarious injury record combined with a rocky start has resulted in a high degree of mitigation. 'The conditions' is what Pochettino speaks of almost every week. His justifications have also made sense.

Chelsea has made an effort at something that this level of football has never done before. It is hardly surprising that the gelling process takes six months to begin producing results. However, there is a feeling of inevitable in some places. So far, the owners' message has been that all of this was part of the plan, but despite Pochettino's outstanding effort, it doesn't seem like it will work.

The former Tottenham player has spent a significant portion of the last several weeks emphasizing this as he is starting from a strong position. Now at last, the summer arrangements and impending meetings are no longer a distraction.

When questioned about moving forward with this group of players, he responded enthusiastically and acknowledged that the club had begun making pre-season arrangements. He has been talking his way out of a job or into the future, depending on which side you are leaning at any particular time.

It has created an odd atmosphere in the last few weeks of the season. Five straight wins, only three points behind Tottenham, the early-season favorites for the trophy, and nine straight victories at Stamford Bridge. The team's form in 2024 has been that of a top-four team rather than a mid-table team.

All around, the play of the players has improved: Marc Cucurella has been given new life in a different role, Moises Caicedo has partnered Conor Gallagher brilliantly in the absence of Enzo Fernandez, and Malo Gusto and Trevoh Chalobah are playing at the back.

Despite occasionally errant finishing, Nicolas Jackson had a steady second half to the season; Cole Palmer continued to look every bit the invincible young attacker under Pochettino's supervision everywhere he went; and Noni Madueke made significant progress toward becoming a more valuable asset on both ends of the field.

My workforce is departing for their holidays via plane tomorrow. I'm planning to spend a couple more days in London. I'm available at all times. I will have my phone on."

Chelsea will now have to make some important decisions quickly. Control is necessary, just as it was a year ago when the team was on the verge of losing seven of their last 11 league games and winning just one.

Now, Chelsea has to aim to control the course and story of their own summer, or else they run the risk of having it predetermined for them. It's an opportunity to clear the air and win people over after two years of hostility and reaction.

Even for the club, it would be disruptive to go into June without knowing Pochettino's future or, in the event that he is fired, the manager for 2024–2025. The club handled the circumstance rather effectively the previous year.

Soon after the season concluded, Pochettino was also revealed, Christopher Nkunku was announced, and a new era was about to begin. After reasonable post-mortems, the bad headlines subsided and Chelsea's summer was relatively uneventful.

Although it is now impossible to duplicate exactly what happened, Chelsea's future will be determined by the choices and announcements that are still to come. The key query is how much alignment is possible between all sides.

Though the team hasn't yet reached its maximum potential, Pochettino feels he has reached the roof with this collection of players in his first year as manager, while the owners seem to think this was only the floor. This lowers the expectations of both parties as they get ready to talk about the appearance of the terrain.

There is still a great deal of ground to be covered in the center, as both sides are now at different extremes of the spectrum. The way they decide and adapt in the next few days will be crucial to Chelsea's summer plans. In either case, it needs to happen fast to avoid messing up more than just the May bank holiday.