Mauricio Pochettino has left Chelsea by mutual consent following an end-of-season review with the club’s hierarchy.
Pochettino was appointed as Chelsea manager on a two-year deal last summer, returning to the Premier League after previous spells with Southampton and Tottenham. The Argentine endured a mixed first season with the Blues, who ended the campaign sixth in the table.
After a difficult start to the season, Chelsea improved across the run-in and ended the campaign with five consecutive Premier League wins to secure European football for next season.
Their 19-point improvement from a disastrous 2022/23 season was the biggest upturn in the Premier League this season, though a sixth-placed finish is deemed below expectations given Chelsea’s record-breaking spending in recent transfer windows.
The end-of-season review is believed to have included Pochettino, sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, and members of the ownership team including Behdad Eghbali, Todd Boehly and Jose E Feliciano.
The Athletic are reporting that a mutual decision has been made for Pochettino to leave Stamford Bridge and Chelsea will now conduct a search for a fourth permanent manager since the takeover by Clearlake Capital in May 2022.
Pochettino’s appointment divided opinion given his past allegiance to London neighbours Tottenham, though there will be concern from sections of the fanbase given recent signs of improvement and the prospect of beginning a new project under another head coach.
Earlier this month, Todd Boehly had suggested Chelsea were keen to continue working with Pochettino after improved performances.
“We’ve seen the last two and a half games…in the second half at Aston Villa [2-2 draw] and Tottenham [2-0 win] and West Ham [5-0 win] where we played beautiful football,” Boehly said at a Sportico conference.
“It was so fluid, it was exactly the way we drew it up, when we came out of the back, built up and moved up the pitch, [it was] very organised and the number of shots we had. In those two-and-a-half games, you could really start to see what we were working on coming together.”
