Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino has drawn in on Zinedine Zidane as an example of players needing time to settle at clubs.
The blues boss has been taking many questions about the slow start Chelsea have made in these first four games ahead of their trip to Bournemouth this afternoon. Chelsea have four points in four games and things certainly need to improve in terms of results at least.
But Pochettino has continued to mention that Chelsea’s squad are young and need time to turn into top players, but at the same time, he has also said that Chelsea must be winning matches now and need to be challenging for the top four this season.
Pochettino says that players are not machines, and he uses the slow start that Zidane had when he joined Real Madrid as an example of how even the older players can take time to make an impact.
In words cited by The Evening Standard, Pochettino said: “At Chelsea the expectation is always massive. When you arrive at Chelsea as a player or coaching staff, the people expect to win, lift some trophies, perform and score.
“We now have a really young squad, players that are good investments for the club. We need to know that they are young and need to adapt and the circumstances and stay calm. It is not fair to assess after one games, two games, three games and say he is not performing.
“I always use the same example; Real Madrid paid 70 or 80 million for a player named Zinedine Zidane. He was an amazing player but after six months, you can ask the fans at the Bernabeu, and they were saying; ‘oh, what have we bought?’
“He started to perform after seven or eight months. Zinedine Zidane was 26 or 27. When you buy players who are 20 or 21 you have to be careful.
“They are not machines. They need to settle with all the circumstances that happened in the last few months. We need to give time.”
