Mauricio Pochettino to Chelsea latest, why it’s gone quiet and who other surprise candidate is

Former Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino is still expected to be named the new Chelsea boss but there has been an awkward silence in the last few days as the club ensures its search for the right man is meticulous.

Pochettino jumped ahead of the likes of Luis Enrique and Julian Nagelsmann last week and reports claimed he would be in the stands for the Chelsea vs Arsenal game on Tuesday night. As it stands co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali are still not cast iron sure when Pochettino would be named Chelsea manager.

Clearlake Capital co-founder Eghbali was spotted at an NBA match over the weekend and when he was asked if Pochettino would be the next man in charge at Stamford Bridge. His answer was: “Maybe”.

LondonWorld sources say Mauricio Pochettino is keen on the idea of managing Chelsea despite his strong affiliations with Tottenham, but will want to have a certain level of control of direction funds of the club and bring along at least four members of his coaching staff with whom he was successful during his time at Tottenham.

The coaching staff request is not an issue as Graham Potter joined from Brighton with a number of his staff, and the manner of Chelsea's defeat to Arsenal is also likely to strengthen Pochettino's bargaining power. The Blues are a total with one of the main reasons why they can not really be relegated being that they are running out of games.

They are currently on their worst run of form since 1993 and have failed to win their last nine games in all competitions, losing all six of their games since interim boss Frank Lampard since he returned to the club to replace Gramham Potter.

LondonWorld sources also say Jose Mourinho’s name has popped up in the last few days as an alternative despite ongoing talks with Mauricio Pochettino.

Mourinho has rebuilt his reputation in Italy with AS Roma where he won the UEFA Conference League and is fighting for a top-four finish as well as still in with a chance to make the Europa League final. Mourinho’s strong resolve in AS Roma is expected in the summer, especially with PSG also being touted as a possible destination for the self-acclaimed “Special One”.

The herculean nature of the Chelsea job

Whoever eventually gets the Chelsea job will be tested as the team’s confidence is below the belly of the snake, Chelsea has 32 first-team players . The owners since taking over Roman Abramovich just over a year ago have brought in 17 new players, enough to almost make a new team.

They also have 21 loanees coming up in the summer including the likes of Romelu Lukaku and the impressive Levi Colwill, add that to the first team and the new manager has a lot of sorting out to do.

Then there is the expectation of the fans who have been used to winning for the last 20 years. The board has to decide if the new manager will be given time to build to compete for the top four or who should be challenging for titles again.

Former Chelsea and Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas, however, believes getting one who comes in to challenge for the title is the right one as Chelsea is a club that is used to winning and fans will not accept anything else.

He told Sky Sports: “I have lived this before, when I was at Chelsea we had one bad season under Jose Mourinho and Guus Hiddink came in to replace him.

“Guus started playing the youngsters and giving them confidence and Antonio Conte was appointed before the end of the season.

“Antonio came to the training ground and spoke to all of us individually and by the time pre-season came around we were ready to go and ended up winning the title that season even ahead of managers like Pep.

“It's about getting the right man in and he had a clear idea of what he wants and how he wants to go about and it's doable.”

Chelsea’s next games are against Bournemouth who have just pulled themselves away from the drop zone and Nottingham Forest who have the worst away record in the Premier League. Frank Lampard who from nowhere has found himself at the centre of the storm will hope he can at least win some of the remaining games before handing over to Pochettino or whoever comes in for the heart surgery to begin.