Chelsea chief Boehly set to go against ‘staff’s wish’ for Pochettino

Chelsea owner Todd Boehly is set to go against his ‘staff’s wishes’ to appoint Mauricio Pochettino before the season is up. The West London club are currently having a torrid time under current interim manager Frank Lampard, losing their last six games on the bounce.

But Boehly is reportedly committed to fulfilling his agreement with Lampard by giving the Blues legend until the end of the season before replacing him with Pochettino. This is according to the Daily Mail, who claim that there are some at Stamford Bridge who feel the team would benefit from Pochettino’s presence as they attempt to navigate their current baron run.

Lampard was appointed as the caretaker manager after the sacking of Graham Potter. In the meantime, Chelsea executives Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley were tasked with whittling down seven potential candidates to a group of four, who were then interviewed by the Blues owners.

From the off the two main frontrunners for the position were Julian Nagelsmann and Luis Enrique with Pochettino initially said to be a ‘backup option’. However, both were ruled out of the running last month.

Naggelsmann chose to pull himself out of the process due to concerns over Chelsea’s recruitment process. Meanwhile, Enrique was mysteriously cut from the final managerial shortlist two weeks ago with no concrete reason given for the club’s decision.

As a result, Pochettino is now the favourite and is involved in crunch talks with Chelsea executives at the time of writing. Chelsea haven’t won a game of football since March 11 when they defeated Leicester City 3-1 in the Premier League.

Last time out they were beaten by the reverse scoreline against Arsenal in a flat display that left fans with more questions than answers. “Chelsea has been a big success for 20 years but at the moment we aren’t in that position,” said Lampard after the defeat.

“In the time I’ve been here it’s clear to see behind the scenes, on the training ground, the reasons why. If you’re going to be a nice team to play against all the time it doesn’t matter where you go. That won’t change overnight but we better get there quickly.

“The passive nature of our game you could attribute to many things. The players certainly care. They are low on confidence, but when you play for Chelsea, you have to play a certain way even if you are low on confidence. Whatever it is, it maybe doesn’t even matter because the only thing that will get you out of it is understanding and working hard. The gap was the other way around for many years.”