Mauricio Pochettino enjoys a close relationship with his backroom team and each member will have a pivotal role in turning around Chelsea's fortunes over the summer and beyond
Mauricio Pochettino is close to being named the new Chelsea boss and is set to take over in pre-season. The Argentine coach brings with him a core group of staff he has worked with
The 51-year-old former Tottenham and PSG chief is known to negotiate the contracts of his staff before his own and enjoys a close relationship with coaches who have been with him, to the extent one of them is his son. Pochettino has lived in the same hotels and remained close in more permanent accommodation, to ensure an intense bond between the group as they bid to drive the team they are at to the top.
Jesus Perez, Miguel D’Agostino, Sebastiano Pochettino and Toni Jimenez are all set to take up employment with the Blues. football.london takes a look at what each could bring.
Jesus Perez - Pochettino's right-hand man, Perez may be the most visible of Pochettino's staff given his presence at press conferences, providing support to the head coach, and assumes a hands on role in directing players through warm-ups and showing players half time analysis.
Matt Lovell, formerly of Spurs, has described Perez as 'lovely' but 'fierce', while the coach is said to be fastidious in his knowledge of individuals. Perez has previously worked closely with sports science staff to tailor individual pre-season programmes, but like the other coaches enjoys a close relationship with Pochettino.
While much of the group enjoyed professional playing careers, Perez took a different route of studying sports science at university before working his way from non-league football to La Liga, holding roles as a fitness coach, general coach and even an academy director early on and being recruited to Espanyol's analysis set-up.
Miguel D'Agostino - Pochettino played with D'Agostino at Newell's Old Boys before the latter joined his former teammate's coaching ranks at Espanyol moving from scouting to helping to oversee player analysis. Previously, the 51-year-old has worked closely with players while providing some technical support to Pochettino.
The goalkeeper coach helped Spain to an Olympic gold medal in the 1992 Olympics and played for Atletico Madrid and Elche in addition to Espanyol during his career. He first coached with Girona FC before making his return to Espanyol as a goalkeeper coach and eventually became an assistant to Pochettino at his succession of clubs.