Chelsea dressing room pick side with Mauricio Pochettino in dark over his future

Mauricio Pochettino has the support of his Chelsea players despite uncertainty over his future heading into the summer, according to Marc Cucurella.

Pochettino is under pressure as the end of his first season in charge of the Blues nears its conclusion. Chelsea are ninth in the Premier League, 19 points off the top four, having won just 13 of their 33 matches.

The team are dramatically underperforming, with over £1billion spent on players since Todd Boehly’s consortium took charge just over two years ago. The hierarchy were said to be ‘seriously considering’ dismissing Pochettino in the summer in the wake of the 5-0 thrashing by Arsenal and the 1-0 defeat by Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final.

Things appeared to be getting worse for Pochettino when his side went 2-0 down against Aston Villa on Saturday, but they fought back to draw 2-2 – and would have won, had VAR not controversially ruled out Axel Disasi’s late goal. Cucurella believes that Chelsea are on the right track under Pochettino and he deserves more time.

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Asked whether the second-half comeback against Villa showed the players want Pochettino to stay, he told the Evening Standard: “Yes, for sure. He spoke very well at half-time, and all the people saw the team’s reaction. A lot of the games we don’t win – and that is part of the game – but I think it is more the whole problem because we have the quality and maybe we don’t show what we can do.

“When we lose 5-0, I don’t think the manager can do anything. I think it is more about us (the players), about our attitude. He has helped a lot of us, he has good communication skills, and the team supports him. We are in a good way. We all need to improve every week, stay at the same level, and have the same attitude every minute because we need to win. If we stay together, we can do good things.”

The performance against Villa was heartening for Pochettino, who admitted they had “given up” in the second half against Arsenal. Noni Madueke and Conor Gallagher scored high-quality goals before Disasi’s dramatic header was chalked off for a push by Benoit Badashile in the box.

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Pochettino signed a two-year contract with the option of a further 12 months when he joined Chelsea at the start of the season. But the fate of his predecessor Graham Potter, who was sacked less than seven months into a five-year deal, shows the short-term thinking at Stamford Bridge.

Pochettino has sought clarity from co-owners Boehly and Behdad Eghbali and sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart. He has already begun planning for the summer transfer window and pre-season, but the threat of the sack continues to hang over his head. Chelsea are back in action against Tottenham on Thursday before ending the season with fixtures against West Ham, Nottingham Forest, Brighton and Bournemouth.

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