What connection Mauricio? The players seem to like you off the pitch, they don't show it on it..... Why is that?

My thoughts on the current situation around Poch

Good Evening Ladies and Gents,

Today I am penning my thoughts on Poch and the situation for the rest of the season.

Firstly, Poch is clearly having issues coaching these players, for reasons that are unknown and that stems from the training pitch, whether what he is trying to implement is too confusing or actually he isn’t really implementing anything at all, none of us will ever really know.

It is clear to me that whatever we are working on in trainings isn’t being put onto the pitch, we occasionally show signs of good passages of ply and some passages that look like they have been worked on, but that could also more than likely be a really talented young group of players occasionally linking up using raw ability.

It is obvious that at the end of the season ties need to be cut and he needs to walk away, he doesn’t look happy, the fans aren’t happy and nobody around the club can be that happy with the glaring issues, the positives are that we can definitely still finish in a European spot of some variety but unfortunately that wont be through playing good football, it will most likely be through trying to grind out games along with some magic from Cole Palmer.

In my opinion there is no point sacking Poch now, it was a similar time last season when Potter got sacked and an interim manager will only make things worse and confuse the players more. Let Poch guide the ship through the remainder of the season is our best chance of European football, whether we like it or not.

On some levels I have absolutely ZERO sympathy for Poch at all and a lot of this is on him, but on other levels I do sympathise with him a little, he has arguably had 3 of what would be Chelsea’s starting back 4 out for the majority of the season, he inherited an incredibly young group of players with no real leaders, he has asked for players/positions and not received as well as multiple other things, so it isn’t fully on him yet a large chunk of it definitely is.

Between now and the end of the season we have 9 fixtures and a fairly unlikely 10th if we was to beat Man City in the FA Cup semi-final.

We still have a massive chance to finish in European places and until yesterday we had a massive chance to finish 6th in my opinion, it’ll have to be 7th now I think IF we are to get any European football, 7th can be Europa League this season.

Changing management and bringing new ideas even on an interim basis between now and the end of the season will only worsen our results, I say worsen but actually when you look at it we haven’t lost a game since the Carabao Cup final in extra time and haven’t lost in 90 minutes for over 2 months, BUT we have had 3 draws recently against Brentford, Burnley & Sheffield United that if even 2 out of those 3 were wins would actually make our season from a table and European football point of view look much much more attractive.

Us as fans as well as the owners need to put our hands up and admit we were wrong, there is no shame in doing that, a lot of us fans as well as the bad thought Poch was the man for the job, I was one of the ones that did and a lot of people denying it are only lying to themselves, we all thought the impact would be bigger and it hasn’t been. We were wrong lets put our hands up, accept it and move on.

I am still incredibly unsure on who I would want to be the next manger of Chelsea Football club and to me there is not one glaringly obvious candidate, time will tell. One thing I am sure about is come 20th May the board and Poch should be having discussions to end his contract mutually and amicably, thank him and move on.

Thanks for reading

Luke Rushbrook