Pochettino appears to criticise Chelsea owners while praising two stars

Chelsea head coach Mauricio Pochettino praises two of his Blues stars. The pair, who both respectively impressed during the Tour of the United States, are likely to be instrumental in the coming season. The boss also appears to criticise Chelsea owners’ transfer efforts, even though they are focussed on signing starlets.

First of all, some good news. Pochettino hailed two performers after the Summer Series ended.

"‘Always it is a pleasure [to have Enzo Fernandez],’ the 51-year-old manager said after the match.‘He is very humble, he is a fighter also and is a fantastic player, world champion with Argentina and I am so proud.‘I am Argentine also and I shared happiness when they won the World Cup. It is a pleasure when you have a player like him in the squad.’Meanwhile, Ian Maatsen is lauded:‘He has the capacity to compete for different places on the pitch,’ the Chelsea manager said on Maatsen.‘He is a player you can use in different positions. I am so happy because his performance didn’t change.‘That is what makes us really pleased because he is a player we see with enormous potential for the team.’"

It’s not all rosy at Chelsea at present

In spite of a stunning – excuse my sarcasm – triumph in the US exhibition competition which means absolutely nothing aside brand-building, improved fitness and offering gaffers squad insight, all is not content at the Bridge at the moment. Mauricio Pochettino is said to be slightly peeved because of his oversized roster. Not to mention the Argentine supposedly already being upset with the CFC transfer policy irrespective of foresight concerning youth. This comes despite of his arrival on Fulham Road, or with the team in general, occurring only one month ago.

Regardless of my sarcastic prior digs about preseason and it meaning very little in the grand scheme of things – Blues fans mustn’t get carried away yet, in my opinion – the summer has gone well for ‘Poch’ and his men. He is seemingly ideal for this strange Chels’ era: perfect in the sense that he can get the west London club out of this silly bother they find themselves in.

The CFC ownership has been heavily criticised for being shiny on the surface with dramatic cracks beneath, so to speak. Well, it seems to me that a frosty Mauricio Pochettino sent an implied message of discontent over current transfer ideology. He seems to allude to the idea that Blues recruitment have been instructed to, or are more concerned with, acquiring future talent rather than signing current stars to improve the team:

"After Chelsea agreed the deal for Ugochukwu, he sounded fed up.‘My information is he [Ugochukwu, 19] is a player that is from France that maybe they are signing with the idea to send on some loan, using a different club, but that information was already in your laptop,’ he said. ‘There is nothing to say too much.’"