Mauricio
Pochettino deserves time. He is a good manager but it doesn't matter how
good you are as a coach if you don't have the players.
You have to have good players at the same time as being a good coach. It's
as simple as that. Pep Guardiola isn't taking Rochdale through the leagues
to win the Premier League.
Just take Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham. When he had his full team out he
was the best manager you've ever seen. However, in the last four weeks, with
the squad wrecked by injuries, everyone is on his case saying he has to
change the way he plays.
You don't become a bad manager overnight. You just need good players, and
you need them fit. At the moment, Pochettino doesn't have good players all
over the pitch. That's the problem.
And who are Chelsea going to go and get if they replace Pochettino? Managers
don't grow on trees. He is a very good manager but you can't get away from
the fact that good managers need good players.
People can say they have because of the money they've spent, but it's not
true. They haven't got a centre forward. They've spent a billion and haven't
got a striker. They created so many chances again on Sunday which they could
not take.
Everyone can point to Christopher Nkunku coming back but he's not an
out-and-out centre forward.
'Chelsea have to get a centre forward in
January' | Could it be Toney?
Chelsea have to get a centre forward in January. How many teams do anything
without a centre forward? What will Arsenal's downfall potentially be this
season? It will be no centre forward. They dominated Aston Villa at the
weekend, but they couldn't score a goal.
I think Ivan Toney could be in demand. Sometimes you become a better player
when you are out of the game. But will Brentford sell him? I don't think
they can afford to, especially with a couple of their players going to the
Africa Cup of Nations. Does Toney want to go? Will he want to show some
loyalty to Brentford? It's a really hard one to call.
It is a lot of money. I do think he is a really good player, but he hasn't
been at a top club yet and we are seeing that with David Raya and Moises
Caicedo at the moment.
It's so different playing for Brentford, no disrespect, to playing for
Arsenal or Chelsea. There's so much scrutiny playing for the top clubs.
Let's take the weekend. Brentford lost to Sheffield United. What page was
that report on? You hardly heard about it. However, Chelsea lost to Everton
and it is headline after headline.
It might just be worth the risk. I feel Arsenal and Chelsea might need Toney
if they are to do anything this season. The hardest job in football is to
score goals. There just aren't many top-quality centre forwards around.
There is Victor Osimhen at Napoli. However, I feel that is a gamble because
he would be coming into the hardest league in the world. How many times have
we seen someone rip it up in another country only to struggle in the Premier
League? We've seen it too many times.
'January reinforcements? Pochettino has to
have a say in signings'
Pochettino's Chelsea signings...
Axel Disasi - Monaco, £38.5m
Nicolas Jackson - Villarreal, £30.1m
Christopher Nkunku - RB Leipzig, £52m
Kendry Paez - Independiente del Valle, £17.27m
Robert Sanchez - Brighton, £25m
Moises Caicedo - Brighton, £115m
Lesley Ugochukwu - Rennes, £23.5m
Romeo Lavia - Southampton, £58m
Deivid Washington - Santos, £17.1m
Cole Palmer - Manchester City, £42.5m
Djordje Petrovic - New England Revolution, £14m
Angelo Gabriel - Santos, undisclosed
Diego Moreira - Benfica, undisclosed
If Chelsea go and buy players in January, then Pochettino has to have a say
in it.
I went through the summer signings. I was looking at them and it was like,
'good signing', 'alright', 'no', 'alright', 'not bad' and 'alright'. That's
where it is at the moment. There are not many you can say have been amazing.
Cole Palmer has been a really good signing, but I'm not sure there's much
else. Mykhailo Mudryk hasn't really got going. Caicedo doesn't look like a
£115m player. Enzo Fernandes looks really good every now and then. Axel
Disasi looks good when he plays next to Thiago Silva and he's playing well.
Noni Madueke and Carney Chukwuemeka don't play.
You can keep going through the list and it is the same. I just don't see
what the thinking was with all these signings.
'I haven't got a clue what Chelsea's best team is'
I called it on Wednesday night. I didn't see any way Chelsea were beating
Everton.
Should Chelsea be doing better? Of course they should. The form has just not
been good enough. There have been some signs that things might improve, but
they have been false starts.
When Chelsea had that good spell against Blackburn, Spurs and Man City, you
basically knew the team. However, now Mauricio Pochettino has gone back to
making lots and lots of changes.
We are 16 games into the league now and next week Chelsea play Sheffield
United, you could get 10 people to name the team for Saturday and none of
them would be the same. If I pick the Chelsea team for Saturday, I could
easily be five names out.
For Arsenal's game against Brighton next weekend, I could give you the
Arsenal XI now. I can virtually give the Man City team, the Liverpool team,
the Aston Villa team, but I can't give you the Chelsea team. I haven't got a
clue.
Chelsea's spending under Boehly and
Eghbali
| Window |
Money Spent |
Money Received |
| Summer 2022 |
£278.4m |
£49m |
| January 2023 |
£323.3m |
£12m |
| Summer 2023 |
£434.5m |
£237.3m |
| Total |
£1.036bn |
£298.3m |
Pochettino talks about assessing the players, but he can't really. He's
stuck with them because most of them are on eight-year deals. He's got
Caicedo on big money on a long-term deal, but he hasn't dominated one
football match yet.
Meanwhile, Declan Rice runs 90 per cent of the games he plays in. He has a
say in the whole game, the way it is played and the way Arsenal play.
Caicedo doesn't do that.
Another one is Conor Gallagher. Chelsea were desperate to get rid of him in
the summer but he's been one of their best players.
A few weeks ago, Raheem Sterling was unplayable but now he's not playing.
Mudryk is now playing but I can't see that he is better than Sterling.
It's just muddled thinking all the time.
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