Sources say Chelsea believed Pochettino’s training methods were causing injuries and his treatment of young players was causing disruption | OneFootball

The dust is starting to settle on the news from last night that Mauricio Pochettino had parted ways with Chelsea.

Nobody can ever say they’re “shocked” by the Blues sacking a coach, but plenty could reasonably say they’re surprised. Even those of us following the club closely found it hard to wrap our heads around why this was happening now, just after things had seemingly started to come together.

The Athletic’s long piece from their Chelsea writers today tries to explain the decision by noting some of the issues and disputes which finally led to the breakdown. There are a huge number of small complaints which seem to have added up to a big picture that Pochettino wasn’t the man to take us forward.

Speaking to a “range of sources,” the Athletic note that there were a number of issues, including the way that he reintroduced players from injury in a way that was blamed for some of the re-injuries we had.

The training in general was felt to be a little outdated, with one source saying there was “no let up… everything had to be at 100%”.

There was also confusion (as there was from the fans) about the way academy players were put on the bench then removed again.

This all combined to various tension about the players the club were and weren’t bringing in across the two transfer windows to create a situation which both parties felt wasn’t sustainable.

A one sided account

As always in these moments, it’s a very one sided picture you get from reading these explanatory pieces. The club brief these journalists on their logic for why the coach was let go, but you don’t really get to know much about how true those reasons are, let alone the coach’s take on whether they’re a fair assessment of their work.

So while this pile of minor criticisms might amount to something, it’s important to remember we’re hearing all of this from one perspective, from people trying to justify the decision to let him go.