Mauricio Pochettino sounds a warning for misfiring Chelsea big guns saying 'we cannot give excuses'

They arrived with huge reputations: World Cup winners’ medals or multiple Premier League titles to their names, while another was predicted to be a future Ballon D’Or winner.

But Chelsea’s self-proclaimed ground-breaking transfer spree saw £600million spent and the team finish 12th. None of the incomers performed but few disappointed more than Raheem Sterling, Enzo Fernandez and Mykhailo Mudryk, a trio intended to propel Chelsea into the post-Roman Abramovich era.

Now they at least have clear leadership for the season under Mauricio Pochettino. They will also not be wanting for aerobic fitness once they have endured the pre-season training programme of Jesus Perez and Pochettino’s son, Sebastiano.

Pochettino, not averse to handing out doses of tough love — he once told Harry Kane he was too fat and not trying — will provide them all the tools to shine. And then it is up to them.

‘We can’t just blame the players,’ said Pochettino last week, discussing the eclectic collection of failed signings accumulated by new owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali. ‘We need to see what is going on and why they are not performing.

When all is clear, we cannot give excuses to them not to perform. We need to clean everything and say: “Come on, now it’s up to you. Show me that you are ready to play for this club”.

‘You share responsibility. It’s not only the responsibility [of the coach] always to feel [their mood]. The player has responsibility to try to adapt, have his own motivation and try to work really, really hard and let us manage.

‘We need to create this platform for them to feel comfortable, to create the space for them to perform and improve. It’s a great challenge for us. We love to work in this way. But we need to give them the