London, May 22 (EFE).- Argentine coach Mauricio Pochettino has decided to leave Chelsea by mutual agreement with the club after less than a year in the position.
Despite the club’s qualification for Europe, after a fairly good second half of the English Premier League, the Argentine has decided not to continue with his contract at the Stamford Bridge club.
“Thank you to the Chelsea ownership group and Sporting Directors for the opportunity to be part of this football club’s history. The club is now well positioned to keep moving forward in the Premier League and Europe in the years to come,” Pochettino said in a statement.
Along with Pochettino, Jesus Perez, his assistant, Miguel D’Agostino, Toni Jimenez, the goalkeeping coach, and Sebastian Pochettino will also leave the club.
The ‘Blues’ will now look for a new coach for the 2024-2025 season, who will be their seventh in five years after Maurizio Sarri, Frank Lampard, twice, Thomas Tuchel, and Graham Potter.
The Argentine had been the fourth coach since the departure of Roman Abramovich, due to his involvement in the Russian war against Ukraine, and the purchase of the club by an American consortium led by Todd Boehly.
In the two years of his administration, Boehly has spent more than €1 billion ($1.08 billion), half of them with Pochettino on the bench for additions such as Moisés Caicedo, Christopher Nkunku, and Romeo Lavia.
Despite the large outlay made by the club, Chelsea has completed a more than irregular campaign, with a disappointing sixth place in the Premier League, worth only qualifying for the Europa League or the Conference League, depending on the FA Cup final between Manchester City and Manchester United.
After dropping to 12th place in the Premier League on matchday 16 and hovering around 10th place with only three matches left, Chelsea made a sprint in the final stretch of the campaign, with five consecutive wins to finish ahead of Newcastle United and Manchester United.
In the domestic cups, Pochettino’s team lost the final of the League Cup against Liverpool and reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup, which they lost to Manchester City.
“On behalf of everyone at Chelsea, we would like to express our gratitude to Mauricio for his service this season. He will be welcome back to Stamford Bridge any time and we wish him all the very best in his future coaching career,” Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley, the club’s sporting directors, said in the statement.
A few days ago at a conference in Los Angeles, Boehly showed his support for the Argentine and said that he was beginning to see green shoots in the project.
However, in one of his last press conferences, Pochettino said that he would sit down with the board at the end of the season and decide whether or not they were happy. EFE
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