Mauricio Pochettino is emerging as the favorite to land the permanent head coach job at Chelsea following a dramatic 24 hours in which Julian Nagelsmann dropped out of the running and Vincent Kompany was placed on the club’s shortlist.
Nagelsmann had been one of the frontrunners for the Chelsea post since the sacking of Graham Potter but will not be part of the process of moving forwards with the Blues now working from a three-man shortlist.
Pochettino is at the top of that list, which also features surprise candidate Kompany, who has clinched promotion to the Premier League with Burnley, and an unnamed coach who is said to be liked and respected by Chelsea.
There is now momentum gathering behind former Tottenham Hotspur manager Pochettino, who has held a series of positive talks with Chelsea this week and is seen internally as an extremely strong candidate.
Telegraph Sport this week revealed that Luis Enrique had slipped out of contention and that contact has been made with all the candidates on Chelsea’s shortlist, including Pochettino.
Pochettino has held more than one round of talks with Chelsea this week with growing warmth towards the Argentine, who was interviewed for the job before Potter was appointed head coach.
Representatives for Pochettino have refused to comment on the situation and Chelsea must consider whether or not his background as a former manager of Tottenham represents an insurmountable hurdle with resistance over that issue appearing to decrease.
Pochettino’s name has been sung by Spurs fans who want him to return to fill their club’s head coach vacancy, but chairman Daniel Levy has so far made no move in that direction.
As things stand, Pochettino would not face a decision between Chelsea and Tottenham if the Stamford Bridge club offered him the chance to permanently succeed Potter.
Chelsea have taken note of the fact that Pochettino over-achieved at Tottenham, almost winning the Premier League title and reaching the final of the Champions League, with a young team after overseeing an overhaul of the squad when highly-paid stars such as Emmanuel Adebayor left the club.
Pochettino is the coach who best managed his relationship with Tottenham chairman Levy, which may be relevant given the hands-on nature in which Chelsea’s latest owners have worked and their desire for all departments to be collaborative, and took the club through a stadium rebuild when the team had to play at Wembley.
At Paris Saint-Germain, Pochettino won the Ligue 1 title by 15 points and won the French Cup in his first season in charge. Having witnessed Thomas Tuchel’s success at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea will also be aware of the record of coaches who have been sacked by PSG.
As well as Tuchel winning the Champions League with Chelsea, Carlo Ancelotti has been crowned European champion twice since leaving PSG, while Unai Emery has won the Europa League and has been a huge success on his return to England with Aston Villa.
Given the challenging nature of their first season in charge, Chelsea’s owners are determined not to rush into a decision over the next permanent head coach and realize they cannot afford to get the appointment wrong.