Football: Soccer-Humbled Chelsea pin turnaround hopes on Pochettino

LONDON (Reuters) – Having flopped spectacularly last season, big-spending Chelsea go into the new campaign looking invigorated after a summer overhaul that has seen the arrival of experienced coach Mauricio Pochettino and a host of new faces.

Pochettino wants to turn the 2021 European Champions League victors back into a winning machine after they suffered their worst Premier League finish since 1994 in the 2022/23 season, when their U.S. owners fired two coaches and still failed to spark a turnaround.

The club has cut the size of the bloated squad that proved impossible to manage for Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter, selling a host of big names such as Germany striker Kai Havertz, who moved to London rivals Arsenal, and home-grown midfield play-maker Mason Mount, who left for Manchester United.

New strikers Nicolas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku, signed from Villareal and RB Leipzig, have raised hopes among fans of an end to Chelsea’s ineptitude in front of goal. Last season they found the net only 38 times in 38 league games.

Highly rated central defender Levi Colwell ended speculation about a move away from his boyhood club when he signed a contract in late July, bolstering a defence that will be missing Wesley Fofana who has suffered a major knee injury.

The signing of centre-back Axel Disasi from Monaco will bring extra cover to the back line, which will be marshalled again by Thiago Silva, who at 38 is by far the oldest member of Chelsea’s young squad.

Chelsea are still hoping to sign midfield anchor Moises Caicedo from Brighton & Hove Albion which could allow Enzo Fernandez to play more in the attacking positions that helped Argentina to win the World Cup last year.

Pochettino – who almost turned perennial underachievers Tottenham Hotspur into winners between 2014 and 2019 and won France’s Ligue 1 with Paris Saint-Germain in 2022 – gave Chelsea fans a taste of his style in a pre-season U.S. tour with the Blues winning three games and drawing twice, scoring 13 times along the way.

But the Argentine knows the judgment of fans and owners will rest on his ability to get the Blues competing for major honours again, even if they will not be playing in European competitions for the first time in seven seasons.

“If you don’t win in a club like Chelsea, for sure you are going to suffer. I don’t want to make excuses or talk about the past,” Pochettino said when he arrived at the club last month.

Chelsea are due to open their Premier League campaign against Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool on Aug. 13.

(Reporting by William Schomberg; Editing by Hugh Lawson)