London is Blue Dispatch #027

Even before the full-time whistle was drowned out by raucous cheers at the Riverside Stadium, the questions began floating in. How has he misprofiled so many players, asked one. Where are the tactics, asked another. Perhaps the most important question of all – are you still going to defend Pochettino?

In Defence of the Indefensible

Let me begin by clarifying my stance. Under these tumultuous circumstances, I have, and always will, stand by the manager. Note that I say manager, not Pochettino. Pochettino just happens to be the manager right now. He has never invited me to a barbeque, he has not brought us Champions League football, he has not got us to a cup final, leave alone a trophy. I have no love for him. He has no credit in my bank.

However, he sat on a hotseat which has charred the butt-cheeks of the world’s finest, and did so at a time when the only way you could have gotten a world class manager in the stadium was by abducting him Jon Obi Mikel style.

We finished TWELFTH last season. Burned through four managers, each staring helplessly like shepherds watching their flock getting torn apart by a pack of dire-wolves. Ten points off relegation. Seven of the 11 who played last night have less than a full season’s worth experience in the PL; the team he’s had at his disposal, with a merry-go-round of injuries, is woefully inexperienced and inconsistent.

Default Defence Mechanisms

Our response to this has been the only way we’ve known in the past – fire the manager. It has worked, always. New manager bounce got us our first Champions League. The new manager bounce after that got us the Europa League. New manager bounce also got us the second Champions League. So why not now?

The Abramovich era taught us a lot of things, but the one thing it failed to teach us was how to cope with sustained failure. Two emperors defined that era – Jose Mourinho, who organized the titans that would not fall, and Thomas Tuchel, who offered the final gleam before the twilight of the golden age. In between those two emperors, success was largely contingent on a world-class core of Drogba, Lampard, Cole, Terry, Cahill, Cech. Upon Jose’s return in between, the coming of the wizards in Juan Mata, Eden Hazard, Cesc Fabregas and a trifecta of warriors in N’golo Kante, Nemanja Matic and Diego Costa.

Our coping mechanisms are utterly effed. The fires that raged then saw us rise from the ashes so many times that we’re now conditioned to lighting them on purpose. We’ve gone from fans meant to cool the heat to those actively fanning the flames, a fanbase of pyromaniacs.

Could we have decided differently in the summer? Luis Enrique, who was in contention to take the hotseat, almost got knocked out in the CL group stage with PSG. None of his big money signings have hit the ground running. €95m Randal Kolo-Muani has four league goals. €80m Goncalo Ramos has three. €45m Barcola has one. €50m Dembele has one. What he does have though, is a titan AND a magician rolled into one. Mbappe’s scored 18.

Ange Postecoglu, an outsider on our summer list, has his magician in Son, who has 12 from 7.1xG, something he has made a habit of doing every season. He’ll miss two key games against United and City due to the Asia Cup. It’ll be interesting to see how they cope.

The other contender, Julian Nagelsmann, has one win in his four games as Germany boss. Players are reportedly unhappy with his approach to training and preparation, pointing to him being overly complicated and demanding. The grass is always greener, see?

The Right Environment

I stand by the manager now because there is no other anchor on the horizon. This storm feels different, one that will not subside anytime soon. Pochettino is doing a lot wrong, undoubtedly. The team looks disjointed, lost and bereft of ideas in a crisis. He hasn’t helped himself with poor substitutions and the lack of a plan B.

But sacking him does not change what he himself cannot change – a team of young guys who don’t yet have the tools or the familiarity in their environment to make a difference consistently. Some will never fulfil their potential, that is the harsh reality of football. Others, if lucky, will become a small part of something bigger. But it will take some of these players one, perhaps two seasons to be overnight superstars.

My question to those who want Pochettino out is this – is the environment the right one for a new manager to immediately make a difference? A squad with 12 injuries? A team with median starts 1/3^rd of that compared to Liverpool? An exuberant but inconsistent core? Can he maintain the precarious power dynamic in a team where he is on a two-year contract and all his players are on eight-year deals?

If between now and the end of the season, this new manager fails to deliver on “Chelsea” standards, do you give them a precious preseason or fire a sixth manager in two seasons (a fourth one after half-a-season), driving away any candidate with more than three brain cells? Irrespective of what you choose, there will be a lot more agony to endure, many more fires to fight.