The timing will not get any better for Mauricio Pochettino to take charge of Chelsea.
As each day passes, the possibility of Pochettino becoming Chelsea's next permanent head coach is becoming more of a case of when, not if. Talks have been progressing very well, so much so that sources close to the situation, speaking anonymously to The Athletic to protect relationships, are growing in confidence that an agreement will be in place sooner rather than later.
As revealed on Saturday, Pochettino has already been discussing some of the players he wants to keep in the squad.
It speaks volumes that there is not a universal outcry among all Chelsea fans about the prospect of Pochettino taking over at Stamford Bridge. As with any club, not everyone will be on board with every decision and there will be those with serious misgivings about this scenario. But there are many people who actually welcome the idea.
The significance of this stance can not be underestimated. There is one thing which has remained consistent among Chelsea supporters over decades: no matter how good the team is, the intensity of the rivalry with Tottenham Hotspur and disliking pretty much everyone associated with the north London club always remains high.
The story behind this sour relationship has already been explained by The Athletic (see below). Even when they are not playing each other, you will regularly hear anti-Tottenham songs sung by the crowd during matches throughout the season, home and away.
Why Chelsea view Tottenham as their biggest rivals
So the likelihood of Pochettino — a man whose coaching career is mostly associated with his time at Tottenham between 2014 and 2019 — taking over at Chelsea is quite a development.
He would not be the first man with strong Spurs affiliations to manage Chelsea. Former Tottenham captain Danny Blanchflower, captain of the double-winning team (league and FA Cup) of 1960-61, had 32 games as Chelsea manager between 1978 and 1979. More successfully, Glenn Hoddle, who played 490 times for Tottenham, took over at Chelsea in 1993 and became a popular figure during his three years in the role. There was great disappointment when he left for the England job, which showed how he overcame Chelsea fans' misgivings about a Spurs legend representing them.
But Hoddle's relative success at Stamford Bridge did not exactly open the floodgates for Spurs personnel. The movement over the past years has been the other way, with ex-Chelsea coaches Andre Villas-Boas, Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte having spells at Spurs. Hoddle also returned there between 2001 and 2003.
Pochettino looks like he will get an opportunity to emulate Hoddle and the stars are much more aligned for him to do that now compared with the two other occasions Chelsea considered him for the position.
When the previous regime decided to sack Frank Lampard in January 2021, Pochettino was sounded out. The Argentinian declined before things could progress too far but only because he had already given his word to Paris Saint-Germain that he would become their head coach.
Supporters could not attend games back then because COVID-19 restrictions were still in place. But a match-going fanbase already upset over the departure of club legend Lampard would have reacted furiously if a former Spurs man had taken his job. Pochettino would have had to match what Thomas Tuchel went on to achieve, which was lifting the Champions League four months later, to win them over. No simple task, even though Tuchel made it look like one.
Chelsea have lost all four matches under interim manager Frank Lampard, including being knocked out of the Champions League (Photo: Glyn Kirk/IKIMAGES/AFP via Getty Images)
New co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali went even further after sacking Tuchel last September. They went as far as putting Pochettino on a two-man shortlist and interviewing him. But they had already decided to pick Graham Potter.
This has turned out to be a blessing in disguise… well, kind of. Had the hierarchy chosen Pochettino in September, it would not have gone down well then either. To replace a very popular figure in Tuchel with a former Spurs man? That is asking for trouble.
Surely Pochettino would not have done as badly as Potter, who won just seven of his 22 Premier League games and effectively masterminded Chelsea's worst campaign for three decades. Yet his remit would still have been difficult due to the many issues he stands to inherit now: the size of the squad; the lack of a regular goalscorer; a club recovering from months of upheaval on and off the pitch with staff changes galore; the annual expectation of challenging for trophies from the fans. As Potter experienced, it would have taken only a few defeats for the critics in the stands to start grumbling.
If Pochettino agrees to come on board, the atmosphere is totally different. Confidence is at an all-time low. He will be seen more positively by virtue of not being Potter. He is not replacing a popular figurehead. Granted, Lampard is in situ as caretaker manager for the rest of the season, but everyone knew from the outset it was just a short-term solution — and a run of four straight defeats has not changed anyone's mind on that front. As far as full-time managers replacing Tuchel go, he is now the man after the man. There is a bit of distance — and a lot of defeats — between the two of them.
Then, of course, there is Pochettino's track record of playing good football, developing young players and, dare one mention it, turning Tottenham from a mediocre outfit like Chelsea are presently into one that came close to winning two Premier Leagues (in 2016 and 2017) and reached the Champions League final in 2019. Plus, he went on to end his trophy drought by claiming the Coupe de France in 2021 (and the Ligue 1 title the following season) at PSG, a club that is renowned for being hard to manage and one that certainly prepares him for the intense pressures at Chelsea far more than Spurs did. It was a crucial experience and part of the learning curve.
Co-sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley have been leading the search for a new coach, with the support of Boehly and Eghbali. They are looking for the best man for the job and Pochettino's achievements, regardless of where they happened, make him a worthy contender.
Another factor that would help appease Chelsea followers is that Pochettino's arrival would actually give them more ammunition with which to taunt their rivals. Spurs fans have been singing his name at recent matches in the hope he will return. So if he ends up at Chelsea instead, that will be seen as some kind of victory (even if Tottenham have not even made an attempt to get the 51-year-old back). Then there is the dream of Chelsea winning a trophy under Pochettino, something Spurs could not do. That would really provide an opportunity to rub salt into the wounds.
There will be some reading this who will take a lot more convincing. But Pochettino will surely never be granted a better chance to succeed at Chelsea by those who follow them.