Mauricio Pochettino wants to keep Chelsea forward Christian Pulisic at the club, according to reports, amid speculation the American could leave in the summer.
A report on Wednesday claimed that Pochettino had struck a ‘verbal agreement’ with the Blues to become their new manager at the end of the season.
Chelsea are currently on their third manager of the campaign with caretaker manager Frank Lampard replacing Graham Potter – who left Brighton in September to take over from Thomas Tuchel – after he only won 12 of his 31 matches in charge.
Lampard has lost all five of his matches at the helm and some pundits are suggesting that Chelsea should move the appointment of Pochettino forward.
And Pochettino is already planning for the future with Italian website Calciomercato (via Sport Witness) claiming that the Argentine ‘wants to keep some players’ that other managers were ready to discard.
It is understood that Pochettino wants ‘above all Christian Pulisic’ to stay with him at Stamford Bridge with AC Milan and Real Madrid both linked to the USA international, who has never lived up to his £58m transfer fee.
And, as well as highlighting some of the players he wants to keep at Chelsea, Pochettino has ‘already given his approval’ for his first signing with the former Tottenham boss happy for Inter Milan goalkeeper Andre Onana to join.
A deal for Pochettino now seems all but confirmed and CBS Sports journalist Ben Jacobs brought us a detailed update this week.
Jacobs wrote in his Caught Offside column: “Mauricio Pochettino is in advanced talks to replace Graham Potter at Chelsea. Things are moving fast and as of Monday evening final negotiations were underway. It wasn’t quite a done deal as of Monday night, and Chelsea hadn’t issued any kind of contract, but there was real confidence from both sides a deal was close.
“Things could well progress very quickly now over the coming days, and Pochettino is expected to be joined by his assistant Jesus Perez and his son, Sebastino, who is a sports scientist.
“Chelsea have considered Pochettino multiple times, both under Roman Abramovich and Clearlake-Boehly. Pochettino was a candidate after Thomas Tuchel was sacked in September, but Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali decided to hire Potter instead.
“Plus, Pochettino was not entirely sold on the project back then. This was due to not wanting to rush straight back into work following his PSG exit, and there being less structure at…
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