Mauricio Pochettino has said that he trusts Chelsea’s owners to give him time to revive the club’s fortunes after a difficult start to the season.
Chelsea go into Saturday afternoon’s home game against Sheffield United with Pochettino under pressure to secure a victory over the Premier League’s bottom side. The Argentinian was frustrated after last week’s defeat to Everton, a result that left his side in 12th place, and suggested he wanted more signings in January.
Pochettino insisted those words were taken out of context on Friday – Chelsea have spent about £1bn on signings since being bought by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital last year. He also denied that the club’s project of targeting young players is unstable and said he is not worried about the hierarchy’s reputation for impatience. Chelsea have had five managers since the start of last season.
“I am a person who trusts until the end, until someone says something else to me,” Pochettino said. “I am a person that always trusts until someone shows me I cannot trust any more. I trust. I know also that I need to deliver. I know football. I trust, I really trust.
“My decision to sign here was because I trust [the owners] when they offered me the job. And now because we don’t get the results that we wanted, it’s [not] that I do not trust. I am going to keep trusting because the club is showing me that they trust in my job.”
Pochettino, who compared management to sitting in an electric chair, was asked how Boehly and Clearlake have reassured him. “The communication is the same from the beginning of the season,” he said. “But no words in football. If I am here it is because they trust. The moment that they stop to trust, don’t worry, you will see not me here.”
Pochettino, who said that a decision on whether Reece James needs surgery on a hamstring injury will be made on Monday, often calls Chelsea’s project exciting. They have built a young squad but have lacked consistency. Injuries have bit hard. The manager is still confident that the plan will work.
“The project is clear,” he said. “All the input we received from the beginning is trust in the work we are doing. Of course you can spend money. If you want to buy a house, you buy a house. But if you want to build a house you need to take some risks. We need more time.
“If you want to build a house you need to buy the land and then find the company, the architect, everything. Then you spend one year, two years, three years. But if you want to buy a new house you go to the market and choose the best house. It is a bit tougher in this type of situation.”
Pochettino said bad luck has held Chelsea back. “People need to know when you want to build in the way we want to build, it is always circumstances. With young players you need some time and luck. But that is the problem when a young team receives too many hits. It is going to delay it and delay it.”
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He insisted that the strategy is not too risky. “When you build a house you are going to buy the land and the product. Maybe you want an Italian table, but you need to wait because in England now it is Brexit. It will not come in two days. But that does not mean it is an unstable project. It is a project. Then it’s up and down.
“If you buy a new house maybe after you are not so happy as after you discover something – ‘Oh it should be different or I need some changes’. But it is not an unstable project.”
On how long it will take Chelsea to build the house, Pochettino said: “The roof? Not there yet. We have good people building the house, good architects. We have the best company, architects, very creative and good. But when you want to build something you need solid foundations which sometimes are affected because of circumstances. You dig the hole and there is water, it is not because of the company.”
Chelsea will be boosted by the return of Christopher Nkunku against Sheffield United. The forward joined in the summer but has not played since injuring a knee in August. Malo Gusto is also fit again but Robert Sánchez and Marc Cucurella have joined an extensive injury list.