Mauricio Pochettino continues to alienate Chelsea fans and push that disconnect even further apart, and the worst thing is, he just doesn’t seem to understand the damage it is doing.
If you want to make it as a Chelsea manager, you simply HAVE to have the majority of fans on side. Pochettino’s comments continue to push the majority of the fans away from him.
His latest comments I find patronising and disrespectful and actually, I was really quite annoyed to read them.
Telling Chelsea fans, the fans of the club you are managing, that they don’t understand football if they are criticising him, is quite simply an insult and a smack in the face.
I understand that he wants to stick up for himself and defend himself against the criticism. That’s fine, he has a right to do that. He will also be receiving abuse and over criticism by the usual suspects on social media, some of them I don’t even call proper fans.
But, when you manage a club like Chelsea, you simply have to expect and understand that you are going to get criticism if you are sat in 9th place in the league with 5 games left to play, it unfortunately goes hand in hand whether the problems are bigger than the coach or not (they are). And much of this criticism is going to come from level-headed fans, as I class myself, and from people who DO understand football. So to say these words is an insult to me, an insult to the majority of you on here who have also offered criticism to Pochettino this season, and an insult to match-going fans and not just those who he claims are ‘bored on social media.’
On suggestions that his coaching team’s training methods were the cause of the injury problems
“We know this business,” Pochettino said. “Too many people talk and try to blame someone and create bad feelings. I think after 15 years we have the knowledge and experience to deal with it. We are a group working with the performance area and medical staff – we decide together. We have arrived from a different club, not from Mars, to manage footballers. It is disrespectful and from people bored at home using social media.”
This one wound me up. This is what he never likes to do, take responsibility or accountability. At the end of the day, we’ve had a CRAZY amount of injuries this season and it’s completely unacceptable. EVERYONE, including YOU Pochettino, is to blame for that. There’s clearly something not right, something not working, players being bought back in too early, asked to do too much too soon in training, or whatever. But to say that people concerned about the injuries and questioning them are just people bored on social media is massively disrespectful to fans who pay A LOT of their hard earned money to come out and support the club week in week out. This is massively out of touch from Poch.
On general criticism from Chelsea fans
“If I follow social media, it’s one thing” Pochettino said. “When I walk every day with my dog, I feel the appreciation from the fans. When at another club, sometimes you walk on the streets you’ll get a ‘hey, you must do this’, but here, it’s the opposite. When I’m on the street, the people are really good, they’re really appreciative and they really give us the credit for working on a project and process that Is so difficult.
“People who understand a bit of football know what is going on here and they appreciate our commitment and the way we behave and they really believe and support the decisions we are taking. We are at the beginning of this journey and we have to try and help and add our knowledge and experience to be more competitive.”
This wound me up even more. So people who are questioning your tactics, your disconnect with the fanbase, your general persona and comments in interviews, your lack of accountability, your leaky defence, your open style of play, playing players out of position, late and odd subs, and general lack of tactical knowledge don’t understand football? PLEASE.
If anything, I’ve seen so much more sense from things said by the community on here and even some fans on social media, who he clearly dislikes with a passion, than I have from Poch at times.
As a fan, the amount of money and time you spend on the club you love, you ARE entitled to a voice, you ARE entitled to offer critique. This has happened since the game started. Back then it was in a local watering hole after the game, now it is all elevated through social media and the internet, but it’s always been there and always will be there. If you can’t stand the heat, then get the hell out the kitchen.
I find these comments so patronising and for me, just pushes me even further away from ever allowing myself to have a connection with Pochettino.
I say this as someone who backed his appointment and continued to back him for a lot longer than many others did. I’ve also been open to changing my mind on him, even in recent weeks. So to do what he is doing to fans like me, and there are many of us who feel the same way (I see it on here, on socials, and I speak to MANY match-going fans who say the same), is pushing us away even more and he is making a HUGE mistake by doing so. We could be your lifeline at this club.
Sooner he goes the better, and I am afraid every time he speaks I only feel that more.
He says we don’t understand. But I’m sorry Poch, YOU are the one who doesn’t understand. You don’t understand this club and it’s fan base, and that’s been one of your biggest downfalls.
It’s fine though, because he has a nice dog and Barry down the local likes dogs…