Chelsea terminate Bruno Saltor’s contract less than four months into Mauricio Pochettino era | Football News
Chelsea first-team coach, Bruno Saltor, has left the club amid a reshuffle of Mauricio Pochettino’s backroom staff.
Pochettino has yet to decide whether to bring in his own replacement.
After six games, Chelsea have had their worst start to a season since 1978.
Saltor came to Stamford Bridge as part of Graham Potter’s coaching staff, and he acted as Chelsea caretaker boss, when the former Brighton manager was sacked after just 31 matches in charge.
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Sky Sports’ Ben Grounds and Peter Smith discuss whether Mauricio Pochettino has bitten off more than he can chew at Chelsea
Potter and Saltor worked together at Brighton where the Spaniard was a youth development coach.
But Sky Sports News has confirmed Saltor has now left Chelsea too, with the two sides reaching a mutual agreement to terminate the remaining two years of his contract.
Poch: Players need to ‘grow up’
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Pochettino says he needs more time after his team’s poor start to the season
Mauricio Pochettino called on his players to collectively “grow up” after the 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa condemned them to their worst top-flight start in 45 years at the weekend.
Pochettino will now be without his starting striker Nicolas Jackson, who picked up a fifth yellow card in just his sixth Premier League game to earn himself a one-match suspension, and Malo Gusto after the Frenchman’s red card.
But the wider squad have now failed to score in three straight games and the poor run has left the Blues 14th in the Premier League, with their meagre five-point haul after six games their worst return since 1978.
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FREE TO WATCH: Highlights from the Premier League match between Chelsea and Aston Villa.
“We need to grow up as a team, not only in an individual way,” Pochettino said. “A player like Nicolas is so young and is feeling his way into the Premier League and learning.
“He needs time, and in this type of game we are competing and want to win. But the players, when they are young, need to learn with experience and when they make a mistake.
“That is why we feel disappointed because we are paying too many situations like this. Things like this is another small detail and, in the end, we are losing the game. We are in a situation we need to change as soon as possible.”
Neville: Chelsea chaos ‘a mystery’
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Gary Neville says it’s a mystery what’s happening at Chelsea and feels chaos flows right down the club
Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville:
“What’s happening? I’ve got great faith in Mauricio Pochettino, but he’s just got a huge pack of cards and he’s probably struggling to know which hand to play.
“It’s a mystery in terms of what’s happening at Chelsea. I’ve said before sometimes chaos flows right down through the club. I’ve said it about United and there’s no doubt there as well.
“There will be some changes, I don’t think they will change the manager at all, but I think there will be some changes there in terms of how they go about their business and who does the business in the next 12 months.
“I can’t see it lasting in terms of how it’s being run, it’s madness. They’re going to have to hang in there, because at the moment they’ve started really badly. The results are going to have to pick up quickly.”
