Chelsea appointment of Pochettino given date

Tom Weber

• Updated: 8 May 2023 10:16 BST
• 3 min read

Chelsea appear to have found their new head coach, and a date for his appointment has already been set.

After sacking Thomas Tuchel mere weeks into the season, the new Todd Boehly regime at Chelsea quickly appointed Brighton's Graham Potter as his successor. This, however, was a knee-jerk decision influenced by Potter's being in vogue at the time.

It proved a disastrous error of judgement for the club and it has left Chelsea with a bloated squad and no Champions League football to look forward to next season despite spending north of €600 million on new signings this term. Unsurprisingly, Potter was sacked in April following an embarrassing home defeat to Aston Villa.

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Frank Lampard was brought in in the interim to steady the ship while a thorough coaching search has been going on in the background, but the club legend likely won't stay beyond the summer, especially given his awful start to life back at Stamford Bridge, winning just one of his games thus far.

Julian Nagelsmann and Luis Enrique were at various times considered the clear favourites for the job, but reports now suggest that the Chelsea hierarchy have settled on former Spurs coach Mauricio Pochettino to guide the Boehly project into the future.

An announcement in the coming days

Indeed, the Blues are said to be edging ever closer to securing the Argentine's signature and the Athletic report that a date for his announcement has already been set.

Talks have progressed positively in recent weeks and an appointment appears to be imminent. It is understood that the Argentine will be unveiled as Chelsea's coach for next season in the coming days.

READ: How Chelsea could line up under Mauricio Pochettino

The 51-year-old has been out of a job since leaving Paris Saint-Germain in July 2022, after which he was considered a potential candidate to replace Thomas Tuchel before the Blues eventually settled on Potter.