Analyzing the Current Situation of Chelsea Football Club

Six games. One win. Two draws. Three losses. Five points. It’s safe to say that Mauricio Pochettino’s first season managing Chelsea F.C. has not begun as well as it should have. Fans of the club have taken over social media, begging for instant changes to be made. Some even jumped the gun and called for his sacking. However, the truth is that it’s too early to take any concrete decision on his standing, and here are the two reasons why. 

#1: TRUST THE YOUTH

With an average age of 23.7 years, Chelsea have one of the youngest squads in the Premier League. Wingers Noni Madueke and Mykhailo Mudryk, midfielder Enzo Fernández, and more youth have been brought in over the past two seasons for a reason—they are extremely talented players who were the bright sparks of their former clubs. Pochettino’s previous experience at Southampton and Tottenham has shown that he likes to nurture youngsters and turn them into stars in the Premier League. That’s what he did with the likes of strikers Dele Alli and Harry Kane at Tottenham, and with forward Sadio Mané and center-back Virgil Van Dijk at Southampton, so why can’t the same be done with Mudryk, Madueke, Colwill, and company? With youngsters in general, one thing that can’t be assumed is that they will instantaneously thrive. It’s not a given that any young player who moves to the Premier League will be able to adjust to the pace and intensity automatically. Therefore, with a squad like Chelsea’s, it’s unrealistic that we, as fans of the club, expect everything to begin flourishing six games into Pochettino’s reign. Trusting in youngsters is the best model for Chelsea right now to rebuild and restore the past glory. Take Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal just two years ago. Performance-wise, the team was underperforming massively, and it was clear that reinforcements were needed. Then, Arteta turned to the academy, summoning winger Bukayo Saka and midfielder Emile Smith-Rowe, who were excellent at the time. It shows that, with young players, there’s a process to adhere to. It’s not going to happen overnight, and this logic applies to Chelsea’s case too. The performances aren’t going to happen instantaneously, which is why we and other fans of the club need to wait and give Pochettino even more time to bring the best out of this squad. 

#2: GIVE POCHETTINO TIME

Trust in managers is a key aspect that owner Todd Bohely must learn as he manages a top European club. Bohely cannot expect a team to produce results by using over $1 billion to buy top players in the world. A team must have time to build chemistry and learn how to play with each other and to the managers’ tactics. Chelsea is a young team that has some of the best potential in the world, and Pochettino can unlock these youngsters. Pochettino is a well-known manager in Europe who likes to play an aggressive, pressing 4-2-3-1. He has asked the board to sign specific players that fit his particular system but has not produced results. However, fans cannot expect him to implement a completely new system in a team where some players just met each other a few months ago and expect it to work instantaneously. With every new team comes the stage of bad results, but Pochettino has shown he can lead a team to glory. In Pochettino’s first year coaching in the Premier League at Southampton, he managed to turn a team that was in the Championship two years ago into an eighth-place Premier League finish. This was Southampton’s best finish in the Premier League at that time and he did it with a squad aged 24.6 years on average. Then, he got a job at Tottenham after his success at Southampton with such a young squad. This is where Pochettino turned Tottenham into an English powerhouse as he went on a three-year run of qualifying for the Champions League after only finishing fifth in his first year at North London. During this run, he almost led Tottenham to history, finishing runners-up in the Champions League. These two tenures alone show that Pochettino can lead this young and inexperienced Chelsea team to the prestige it was once at. 

Chelsea’s struggles at the start of this campaign are evident and painful for fans old and young, and many will still blame it on Pochettino and the billion-dollar entourage that dons Stamford Bridge blue. But by now, Chelsea have already realized that firing managers after just a few months won’t fix anything. Blues fans and Todd Bohely must keep their faith in Pochettino to assemble his team. In time, the results will come.