Chelsea are on the hunt for Mauricio Pochettino’s successor (Picture: Getty)
Ashley Cole says he is ‘sad and disappointed’ to see Chelsea move on from Mauricio Pochettino and believes the manager did a ‘fantastic job’ during his brief tenure at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea announced on Tuesday evening that Pochettino had left the club by mutual consent, just days after the Argentine had secured European football with a sixth-placed finish in the Premier League.
It had been a challenging debut campaign for Pochettino but Chelsea finished the season on a high, winning five on the bounce in the top flight, and there was a feeling amongst fans that the tide was beginning to turn in their favour.
However, the Blues once again find themselves in the market for a new manager and several names have been tipped as possible replacements for Pochettino, including Kieran McKenna, Roberto De Zerbi, Enzo Maresca and Thomas Tuchel – who steered the side to Champions League glory in 2021.
The latest reports indicate that the west London giants aim to appoint Pochettino’s successor by the end of next week.
But Chelsea legend Cole feels his former club should have kept faith in Pochettino given there had been clear signs of progress in the back-end of the season.
‘I’m a little bit sad and disappointed, to be fair, because I see all the hard work that he put into the club, put into the team,’ the former Chelsea and England left-back told SNTV.
Cole was saddened to see Pochettino leave Chelsea (Picture: Getty)
‘You saw the change of fortunes in terms of their results, they really came good.
‘If you would have asked me at the start of the season, “Where would they place in the league?”, in my personal opinion, I would have taken sixth place.
‘I think he’s done a fantastic job, he had a young group to work with which, again, is really, really hard to sustain momentum and consistency.
‘Okay, the front-end of the season wasn’t as he would have planned but if you look at the end result at the end of the season and, for me, he’s done a fantastic job so I’m a little bit sad, to be honest.’
McKenna has done an ‘amazing job’ with Ipswich, says Cole (Picture: Getty)
According to Cole, Chelsea’s ‘young’ and ‘enthusiastic’ group of players were just beginning to hit their stride with Pochettino at the helm.
‘I’m not that close to it to understand the conversations that go on behind closed doors, I don’t understand the ethos and philosophy of what direction the club want. That’s the owners,’ he added.
‘But again, as a fan and me watching from the sidelines, yeah, I really enjoyed watching a Poch team.
‘I enjoyed watching a young, enthusiastic players trying to come together and build an environment and culture that you’re proud of and towards the back-end of the season, I got to see that. From the outside, I enjoyed watching that team.’
Chelsea have reportedly made an approach for Ipswich boss McKenna, who has steered the Tractor Boys back into the Premier League for the first time since 2022.
And Cole has been massively impressed by the ‘amazing job’ the Northern Irishman has done at Portman Road after back-to-back promotions.
‘I don’t know about a mentality. I can just say that the job he’s done at Ipswich over the past two years has been fantastic,’ the three-time Premier League winner said when asked if McKenna had the right ‘mentality’ to manage Chelsea.
‘I don’t know any personal information about him but if you’re asking me, “Has he done a good job at Ipswich?”, he’s done a fantastic job, an amazing job, so you’ve got to give him credit there.’
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