Mauricio Pochettino is being heavily linked with a return to the Premier League as Chelsea have set their sights on the former Tottenham boss.
The Argentine manager is no stranger to a rebuild as he orchestrated Tottenham’s rise up the league from 2014 to 2019. Pochettino delivered four consecutive top four finishes while in North London and also made it to a Champions League final.
We have taken a look back at the squad he inherited at Tottenham back in 2014 and compared it to the Chelsea squad he would now be walking into.
Last league finish
Pochettino took over in North London at the beginning of the 2014–15 season. Tim Sherwood had guided the club to a sixth-placed finish in the previous season, wo points behind Everton and 10 behind bitter rivals Arsenal.
Things had begun to unravel towards the end of Sherwood’s tenure as they lost five of his last 11 Premier League games. This prompted Daniel Levy to sack him at the end of the season, before then hiring Pochettino.
While the circumstances at Tottenham weren’t great at the time, that’s nothing compared to the chaos he will be inheriting at Stamford Bridge.
Thomas Tuchel had guided the club to third in the Premier League during his first full season with the club, but his head was soon on the chopping block once Todd Boehly arrived in the summer.
Things only got worse under Graham Potter and Frank Lampard has also struggled to turn around their fortunes. They currently sit 11th in the table and are projected to finish the season with a mere 47 points.
READ: Mauricio Pochettino to Chelsea? 17 managers who joined rival clubs
Squad
Tottenham had used 28 players in the Premier League season before Pochettino arrived. As follows:
Hugo Lloris, Michael Dawson, Paulinho, Mousa Dembele, Roberto Soldado, Aaron Lennon, Kyle Walker, Andros Townsend, Christian Eriksen, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Nacer Chadli, Jan Verthonghen, Danny Rose, Kyle Naughton, Emmanuel Adebayor, Sandro, Vlad Chiriches, Nabil Bentaleb, Jermain Defoe, Lewis Holtby, Younes Kaboul, Etienne Capoue, Harry Kane, Erik Lamela, Ezekial Fryers, Milos Veljkovic, Alex Pritchard & Brad Friedel. 28
This season, Chelsea’s first-team squad is as follows:
Kepa Arrizabalaga, Marcus Bettinelli, Edouard Mendy, Gabriel Slonina, Benoit Badiashile, Thiago Silva, Trevoh Chalobah, Ben Chilwell, Reece James, Kalidou Koulibaly, Cesar Azpilicueta, Marc Cucurella, Wesley Fofana, Enzo Fernandez, N’Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek,…
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