Mauricio
Pochettino walked into Cobham training ground on Monday morning for his
first official day in office under no illusions of the daunting task ahead
of him.
Chelsea have wasted little time in carrying out what has been described as
'phase one' in bouncing back from the wreckage of last season.
Pochettino has the charisma, calibre and character to mould solutions out of
the current malaise, and after £212m worth of talent was offloaded before
the end of the last financial year on June 30, the Argentine must now embark
on the next phase of the Stamford Bridge rebuild.
Sky Sports News reporter Dharmesh Sheth and Ben Grounds take a deep dive
into what remains on Pochettino's in-tray.
Continue to trim bloated squad
Pochettino inherited 35 first-team players. That didn't include Malo Gusto
and Andrey Santos, who this summer will join up with the squad for the first
time having signed for Chelsea during the £600m spending splurge of the last
two transfer windows.
The sales of N'Golo Kante, Kalidou Koulibaly, Mateo Kovacic, Edouard Mendy,
Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Kai Havertz have helped trim a bloated squad.
Mason Mount is undergoing his Manchester United medical but there are still
players who have been deemed surplus to requirements.
Lyon have made an offer worth £21.5m for forward Christian Pulisic and talks
over a payment structure are ongoing. AC Milan remain keen - but have yet to
make an official bid.
Meanwhile, Chelsea are close to an agreement over a mutual termination of
captain Cesar Azplicueta's contract. It would allow Azpilicueta to become a
free agent. Atletico Madrid are ready to do a deal while Inter Milan are
also thought to be interested.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Trevoh Chalobah and Marc
Cucurella all fit under this same category.
Does Lukaku still have a future?
While the playing staff will arrive through the training doors on Tuesday,
some players who were on international duty with their country for the
European Qualifiers have been handed an extended break.
For Pochettino, this will have bought him some breathing space for when
Romelu Lukaku is due to return.
Inter Milan continue to work on a deal for the striker. They have yet to
make an offer Chelsea are satisfied with.
The Belgium striker's future was in serious doubt when he departed for Inter
Milan on loan last summer after the breakdown of his relationship with
Thomas Tuchel.
Lukaku may yet seek a permanent move away, but is on £350,000 a week. He may
claim he has unfinished business - not for the first time - and the sour
taste left of his second coming may have eased with the change in manager.
Chelsea have signed Jackson and Nkunku - but the shortage of goals last
season has emphasised the need for options should those Premier League
rookies struggle to hit the ground running.
With further loan deals ruled out and only permanent moves being considered
for Lukaku is a conundrum Pochettino must solve.
What is the latest on Caicedo pursuit?
Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo is the club's next transfer priority
following the arrivals of Christopher Nkunku and Nicolas Jackson for a
combined £84m.
Chelsea are expected to formally approach Brighton once a number of outgoing
deals are finalised.
Now that Kovacic and Kante have departed - and Mount will soon follow -
Pochettino will prioritise partnering Enzo Fernandez with Caicedo in
midfield.
The Ecuadorian was a vital cog as Brighton finished sixth but has been the
subject of heavy interest from several clubs.
Brighton rejected a £70m bid by Arsenal in January and are demanding £100m.
Chelsea are hoping to bring the player's valuation down to a fee in the
region of £80m.
Restore confidence and ooze entitlement
Too often last season, Chelsea's body language gave the game away.
Confidence and belief was at an all-time low. Frank Lampard failed to win a
single game at home.
In 2014, when Pochettino arrived at Tottenham, he made it his duty to remind
his players of the club's history and its expectations. Graham Potter lacked
self-assurance and never looked a natural fit.
Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte were both title winners and oozed
entitlement bordering on arrogance. While Pochettino failed to secure
silverware at Spurs, he guided them to a Champions League final with
swagger.
Image is every bit as important to the club's identity as the trophy haul of
the past 20 years and Pochettino must show the personality to satisfy both
those requirements.
The incoming manager will be tasked with recreating a winning culture while
continuing to make cut-throat decisions on the future of several senior
players.
Pochettino is said to arrange his desk to include a bowl of lemons nearby in
order to absorb any negative energy. The greater the negativity, the theory
goes, the quicker the lemons rot.
The 51-year-old will hope the deeper he heads into his first summer in
charge, the juicier the citrus fruit will become. For now, he can at least
reflect on fitting his first-team squad inside the same changing room.
Silence the Spurs connection
"Suddenly I hear Pochettino. I like him but this is Tottenham. The man's got
to understand, he's American. That's like a Yankee going to play for the
Mets. It doesn't happen. It shouldn't happen."
The words of Paul Merson, a self-proclaimed Chelsea fan, upon hearing the
news of Pochettino's name emerging as the club's front-runner.
It is an appointment that has divided the fanbase, but results and the swift
work completed on removing those not in his plans will have already started
to shift the mood.
One Tottenham fan went viral for burning Guillem Balague's Brave New World -
a biography charting Pochettino's rise. In his eyes, he is public enemy No 1
after joining their neighbours.
Pochettino must continue to silence the Spurs connection as he embarks on
pre-season.
Unlock Mudryk
Ultimately, his reign will be defined by his players.
Mykhailo Mudryk played well for Ukraine as they beat France to book their
place in the European U21 Championship finals on Sunday night. Chelsea have
planned to re-build his confidence in Georgia and Romania but a minor muscle
injury kept him out of the group stage.
Despite having shown flashes of brilliance, the 22-year-old winger has
struggled to justify the £88.5m transfer fee to Shakhtar Donetsk.
Fifteen appearances and just two assists. Mudryk is yet to find the net
while he has only ever completed 90 minutes in the Premier League once.
Starting just seven games and being brought off the bench on eight
occasions, Mudryk will now hope for a run of games under Pochettino.
Mudryk made his first appearance at Anfield back in January, and impressed
during his cameo. The new Premier League fixture list has given him the
perfect chance for a fresh start, back where it all began.
Will Colwill form part of new defence?
Levi Colwill wants talks with Pochettino over his status in the team before
he considers discussing a new contract.
Chelsea have insisted the player is not for sale this summer after a fine
season on loan at Brighton and they want to approach him about discussing a
new deal.
However, the England U21 international wishes to understand where he fits
into Pochettino's plans this season and how much regular playing time he can
come to expect, before discussing new terms.
Colwill, who is under contract until 2025, will seek to understand just how
fundamental he is to those plans when he returns to pre-season training
following England U21 duty.
Colwill is widely considered one of England's best centre-back prospects and
is somewhat of a commodity given he is left-footed.
But he is also competing with Benoit Badiashile - a £35m signing from Monaco
in January - for the left centre-back role at Chelsea.
Brighton wanted to sign Colwill permanently this summer but had a £30m bid
flatly rejected amid Chelsea's insistence he is not for sale and is wanted
as part of Pochettino's plans.
As well as Brighton, Colwill has been on the target lists at a host of
Premier League clubs.
top