Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino has admitted he has a meeting with Blues owner Todd Boehly scheduled in the diary for the end of the campaign and has insisted he is already planning for next season. The Argentine took over at Stamford Bridge last summer and endured a difficult start to his career in west London but has helped his team turn their form around in recent months.
“The way we work is to sit with the sporting directors,” Pochettino said ahead of Chelsea’s trip to Nottingham Forest on Saturday. “We are already planning the pre-season tour, to start the pre-season here. We have had some meetings and we are working with the responsibility to organise the next season and, of course, working in the future.”
Chelsea struggled for form in the early stages of the season and suffered eight Premier League defeats before Christmas. But Pochettino has since guided his team to the Carabao Cup final, the FA Cup semi-finals and seventh in the Premier League table. Chelsea have lost just once in their last 12 Premier League outings and are aiming to leapfrog Newcastle to secure a sixth-place finish. The Blues are currently two points behind the Magpies, with both teams having three matches remaining.
If Chelsea finish sixth and Manchester United lose to Manchester City in the FA Cup final, the Blues will secure the final Europa League qualifying spot, a target that reportedly has to be met in order for Pochettino to keep his job in the capital.
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And when pressed upon whether he would remain in the Stamford Bridge hotseat, the former Tottenham boss admitted there is a chance he could ‘split’ with the club. He said: “Look, it’s not important. The most important thing is to keep going, working if we are all happy, not only the owners happy with us, or us with all the organisation the club is building here. Because of them we are all under assessment.
“If we are happy, perfect. But it is not only if the owners are happy or the sporting directors [are] happy. If we are happy, you need to ask us also because maybe we are not happy and we accept the situation and we need to split. It is not going to be the first time the coaching staff at the end of the season decide to not keep going.
