Mauricio Pochettino reveals desire for Chelsea talks over transfers

In a season that has also been heavily impacted by injuries, Pochettino has had to cope with the complexities of overseeing the development of an extremely-young squad by Premier League standards.

Only four players in the senior ranks — Thiago Silva, Marcus Bettinelli, Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell — are aged 27 or older, a further three other players being 26 years of age.

Although some of the younger crop have flourished at times this season, there has been an inconsistency about Chelsea's performances, something which Pochettino has alluded to on more than one occasion.

Reports have suggested that co-owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital are contemplating whether to make a change in the dugout at the end of the season.

Furthermore, Chelsea are in a position where they must fulfil all criteria regarding the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability regulations by June 30.

Taking both factors into consideration, Chelsea are not able to freely identify targets and push ahead with attempting to add them to the squad.

Nevertheless, speaking to reporters on Friday, Pochettino acknowledged that decisions need to be made over how Chelsea approach the market when it reopens in June.

As quoted by the Evening Standard, Pochettino said: «We can keep going in the same way with the policy, but in the squad, we have Thiago Silva, Raheem Sterling and Marcus Bettinelli. Maybe Marcus isn't playing but he does a fantastic job helping the young guys.

»We have experienced players in the squad. It is not going against the project to have some players who are helping the