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Football London
Football London
Sport
Tom Coley

Chelsea owner Todd Boehly 'accepts' major mistake that has already cost Mauricio Pochettino

For all the talk of a sustainable Chelsea with less chaos, probably less trophies and a true long-term plan, Todd Boehly and Co have given off extremely mixed signals in their 12 month ownership.

Everything public suggests the vision of creating a true era and dynasty with a manager leading the way for years to come but the actions have been less clear. After just one full season the club are close to appointing a third permanent manager and have had four men oversee games already.

As Mauricio Pochettino prepares to watch over the final three matches of the season ahead of a full pre-season and mass clearout, those at the top of the club will be wondering just how it got to this stage. Graham Potter was meant to be their guy for the long-haul and he lasted less than eight months into the biggest contract in Chelsea manager history.

READ MORE: Chelsea make major Mauricio Pochettino breakthrough as deal agreed for new manager

Before that, Thomas Tuchel had made his position clear as committed head coach despite previous clashes with boardrooms, direcors and those above him at Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund. His mixture of charisma, tactical work and previous success had made him a fan favourite.

When it came to planning for the long-term there was genuine optimism between the fanbase that Tuchel could go on to work under the new regime for seasons on end. That was cut short after just four months. The decision to pull the chord on his time has hardly been vindicated since with results not improving but there were signs of discontent that had appeared from last summer.

Now, with a little bit of time to reflect, it is reported by the Daily Mail that Boehly and Co 'accept' that mistakes have been made along the way, including the premature sacking of Tuchel in September. After three defeats in the opening month of the season the German was dismissed following a 100-day review by Boehly-Clearlake Capital and the decision co-incided with a loss away to Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League.

After thanking Tuchel for is work, the statement at the time shifted tack, writing: "As the new ownership group reaches 100 days since taking over the Club, and as it continues its hard work to take the club forward, the new owners believe it is the right time to make this transition."

Elsewhere, when addressing the situation later on in the season, Boehly described the working situation he needed with a manager and why Tuchel wasn't working. "When you take over any business you have to make sure you are aligned with the people in the business," he said. "And Tuchel is obviously extremely talented and obviously someone who had great success with Chelsea.

"Our vision for the club was to find a manager who really wanted to collaborate with us, a coach who really wanted to collaborate. There are a lot of walls to break down at Chelsea. Before, the first team and academy didn't really share data, and didn't share information about where the top players were coming from.

"Our goal is to bring a team together; all of that needs to be a well-oiled machine. The reality of our decision was that we weren't sure that Thomas saw it the same way we saw it.

"No one is right or wrong. We just didn't have a shared vision for the future. It wasn't about Zagreb. It was about the shared vision of what we wanted Chelsea to look like. It wasn't a decision that was made because of a single win or loss. It was a decision that we thought was the right vision for the club."

The choice to appoint Potter less than 48 hours later was also rushed. Without a recruitment team or directors to advise, Boehly and Behdad Eghbali went into talks with Potter and also Pochettino with their sights already firmly set on the former Brighton man. Their desire to work with a coach that was more holistic backfired with spiralling performances and a mid-table league position.

Although Tuchel was not their man for the long-term, it is said that the feeling now appears to suggest that standing by him for longer would have been the more sensible option.

This all came about at a time whereby the previous heirarchy had been gutted. Keeping in Marina Granovskaia was made impossible and Petr Cech left with her too, leaving a lack of experience at the top to advise Boehly in an entirely new situation.

What has happened so far has only made matters worse and upon reflection, the owners accept that mistakes have been made and regret is there over how things ended with Tuchel. Gary Neville agrees on the costly decisions. Speaking last month he said: "Chelsea last season, we watched them in the Carabao Cup final, could have won the FA Cup final, they're still very close so Thomas Tuchel was doing a good job.

"Keep your manager in place for the season if you can because he's a very good manager, he's proven. Keep the majority of those players in place and add to it in three or four strategic positions.

"He's got rid of the football department. Petr Cech has left, Marina Granovskaia has left, then the manager has gone and you're in complete turmoil.

"Then they start off with a strategy of older players with experience. Then all of a sudden they flip it into a model of giving 38-year contracts to 22-year-olds and thinks like that.

"The whole thing has been a shambles."

It is now over to Pochettino to steady the ship and get it heading in the right direction once again.

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