Mauricio Pochettino makes Chelsea u-turn as club make sacking stance perfectly clear

Mauricio Pochettino was well aware of what exactly he was getting himself into when he agreed a deal to become Chelsea's new permanent head coach earlier in the year. After seeing Graham Potter backed with hundreds of millions of pounds in the January transfer market, he was then ruthlessly sacked from his job just a couple of months later.

Just seven months into his tenure at Stamford Bridge and Potter's position as head coach was viewed as untenable by the club's board. There was always a feeling of inevitability with Potter being sacked. football.london understands there were some members of the club's board that wanted him gone right at the beginning of 2023, but he was given until April.

Chelsea did not rush the process of permanently replacing Potter as head coach. The club appointed Bruno Saltor, who worked as part of Potter's backroom staff at Stamford Bridge, was appointed as interim head coach but that lasted just one match, a goalless draw with Liverpool.

Frank Lampard then returned to the club but only on an interim basis. The Chelsea icon, who had been sacked by the previous ownership when he was the permanent head coach, made a stunning return to Stamford Bridge on a short-term contract until the end of the season.

While Lampard and his squad were limping towards the end of the season, senior officials at Chelsea were working behind the scenes to identify the person responsible for effectively being the spearhead of the club's long-term vision. Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali had already pumped around £700million into transfer-related business to try and improve the Blues' squad.

A lot of these players brought in, though, were young players. Sometimes referred to as 'project players', mostly by supporters, these