Mauricio Pochettino was reportedly shown the door at Chelsea for – among other things – his doubts over a pair of big-money signings and his public criticism of the club s sporting directors.
Pochettino led Chelsea into Europe after an uptick in displays in the second half of his debut season at Stamford Bridge, but left the club by mutual consent on Tuesday.
A report on Wednesday claimed and for failing to make better use of his squad despite the significant transfer spend.
Lacked size and power for the Premier League
, including his doubts over midfield pair Enzo Fernandes and Moises Caicedo, signed for a combined fee of £220m.
The report states that Pochettino privately questioned whether Fernandez was destructive enough to be a No 6 or creative enough to be a No and thought Caicedo lacked the positional discipline to operate as a specialist holding midfielder .
There was an undoubted improvement in performances and results after Fernandez was ruled out for the season and Conor Gallagher – a clear favourite of Pochettino – moved to play alongside Caicedo in a deeper role and Pochettino felt the initial pair lacked the size and power for the Premier League .
It brings into question whether Pochettino had any say on the signings made under his stewardship, but it s claimed he supported the signing of Caicedo and senior figures insist there was collaboration on recrruitment and no major disagreements on strategy .
The manager did though bring up the need for more experience players and is said to have asked the board to sign two such individuals he had worked with in the past but was denied.
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Thinly veiled criticism
That all suggests there wasn t total agreement between Pochettino and co-sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley, and the report claims the manager s thinly veiled criticism of the pair in a press conference ahead of Chelsea s trip to Aston Villa in April was received extremely poorly .
Pochettino insisted “the whole organisation” is culpable for the problems of the season, before adding: “My responsibility is that the team perform. But the club is designing and planning a structure that you need to prove works.
