Mauricio Pochettino’s appointment was finally announced by Chelsea yesterday, although his contract will not start until the 1st of July.
This is because of an arrangement with his last club, Paris Saint Germain, but the reality on the ground is that Pochettino will begin work immediately, and in fact has probably already been doing so for some time.
Dan Kilpatrick’s piece in the Evening Standard today claims that the Argentine will fly to London tomorrow, and that talks with outgoing caretaker Frank Lampard are planned. He intends to split his time between London and his home in Barcelona for the next month, before settling in full time in July.
It has just been announced by Atletico Madrid that Joao Felix will be returning there now that his loan at Chelsea is complete, and that the Blues will not be making the move permanent. By the timing of it, we would be very surprised if that was not among the first orders of business for Pochettino to sign off on.
Next up will be expiring contracts – N’Golo Kante needs to be secured to a new deal, and there may yet be one last throw of the dice for Mason Mount, although it seems that ship is likely to have sailed, unless the board have been waiting all this time for the new coach to decide what they should or shouldn’t offer.
