Pochettino : Chelsea’s job is not as difficult as that of Southampton or Spurs

Pochettino : Chelsea’s job is not as difficult as that of Southampton or Spurs’BELIEVE ME’: Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino. Photo: Steven Paston/PA Wire’BELIEVE ME’: Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino.

PSteven Paston/PA WireMauricio Pochettino believes he is under no more pressure from Chelsea’s owners than in his previous two Premier League appointments.The Argentine has had successful spells at Southampton and Tottenham, leading the latter to the Champions League final in 2019, but has seen his new team struggle for goals and victories since his appointment in the summer, despite a huge transfer fee.He famously had a close relationship with Spurs chairman Daniel Levy before he was sacked five months after leading the club to the competition to be crowned European champions. At Southampton there was a similarly accommodating working arrangement with executive chairman Nicola Cortese, who tasked Pochettino with trying to stabilize the Saints in the top flight, a task he accomplished comfortably during his 18 months in charge.Yet Chelsea have created a different level of expectation, with more than £1 billion spent on recruitment by co-owner Todd Boehly’s Clearlake Capital consortium, an investment which has yet to yield results with the club stuck in the bottom half of the table.Pochettino said the work he did before his appointment at Stamford Bridge did not make the job more difficult, but actually made his job less complicated.”It’s less difficult than when we were at Southampton and Tottenham, believe me,” he said. “Believe me. “The only thing we are missing is scoring goals because the team is playing. If you look at our first months at Southampton and Tottenham, I think we (Chelsea) are playing a lot better.“We are doing much better here, but we are missing the most important thing in football: scoring a goal. But it is not more difficult than the previous experience.“It was different (at Tottenham). The transformation was with us, in the way we built the team, with the club, we worked in six months, a year to change it and shape it. “Here, the plan was already made and we came here and tried to develop this project. By the time I got here, the plan had started to work. Now I’m part of the plan. Of course I have the same responsibility here as at Tottenham, but I think it was a bit different.Pochettino’s work at Southampton laid the foundations of his reputation in the Premier League, leading the team to a 14th-place finish after replacing Nigel Adkins midway through their first season back in the top flight.Cortese’s decision to abandon Adkins, who had guided the club since League One, and replace him with a manager virtually unknown in England was controversial at the time. However, the two men quickly built a relationship which underpinned the manager’s initial success in England.“With Nicola we were really close,” Pochettino said. “He liked to invite me to his office at St. Mary’s for coffee before a game.“One day we were sitting on the couch in his office, talking and talking and my phone was like this (face down). We talked, I don’t know what.

Then someone knocked on the door and said, “We have to start the game in five minutes.”“Nicola was like that. Daniel (Levy) would sometimes come before the game and talk in the coach’s office. At the moment that’s not the case, because in these five home games (the starters) came second.”(Co-sporting directors) Paul (Winstanley) and Lawrence (Stewart) always come to say hello first. It’s a similar relationship (with Southampton and Tottenham). Now there is no more pressure than in other places.”