Mauricio Pochettino has called for more of his involvement in the club’s transfer activity after having already seen huge sums spent since arriving at Chelsea in the summer.
The Argentine admits there needs to be more involvement on his part in transfers, just like what he felt during his tenure at Tottenham.
Having returned to the Premier League’s top flight this summer after quite a few seasons away, he’s now in the midst of trying to squeeze a few concordant notes out of his Blues squad, one fastidiously – critics would say haphazardly – assembled across several different managerial regimes, with co-owner Todd Boehly himself playing the puppeteer.
Despite the American having taken a monopolistic hands-on role in recruitment at Stamford Bridge, yet the more than £1billion spent has not borne fruits as far as improvements to the team’s performances are concerned. Although not yet critical, the situation does look a tad glum as the Blues have already lost thrice this term and, while Pochettino is groping around for solutions that work, he admits the need to have more influence over the comings and goings in transfer activities.
He said: “The good thing, the relationship is very good with the owners and the sporting directors. I think like I told before, when the transfer window was closed, I need to be involved, more involved now, in every single decision. I think we need to start identifying what we need for January. We already start to work.”
The likes of Nicolas Jackson, Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia were added in the summer, yet they haven’t been able to take the west Londoners closer to the top after their first bottom half finish in more than two decades last season.
Pochettino is again back in the familiar situation of having to watch those above him make recruitment decisions, something he voiced frustrations with in his previous role at Tottenham where the 51-year-old successfully transformed their young academy talents into title challengers, which was no mean feat considering the far lower budget they had compared with their rivals.
At Tottenham Daniel Levy, like Boehly, played the dominant role in determining transfer activities which eventually led Pochettino to concede he was merely coaching the players without having any control whch players came into the club and who extended their deals.
“I am not in charge, I know nothing about the situation of my players,” he confessed. “I am only coaching them, trying to get the best from them. These types of things, what will happen, what will not happen, selling and buying of players, extending contracts, not extending contracts, I think it is not in my hands. It is in the club hands, and Daniel Levy. At the moment I am managing the team in the best way possible.”
Unlike at Tottenham where the net spend in transfer activities was incredibly low, an astronomical sum has already been spent Chelsea, yet the question marks are looming big and ominous in the skies above as to when Pochettino is able to turn the fortunes around, regardless of whoever is pursuing the deals.