Chelsea coach 'secretly' leaves after poor start to season under Pochettino

25 September 2023 , 12:13

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Chelsea coach 'secretly' leaves after poor start to season under Pochettino

As if things weren't bad enough on the pitch for Chelsea right now, there's apparent turmoil behind the scenes as well.

For the second successive season, it appears that a summer spending spree has yielded more chaos than cohesion at Stamford Bridge, with the Blues floundering in 14th in the table after six games. Indeed, Sunday's home defeat to Aston Villa made it three Premier League losses already under Mauricio Pochettino.

Indeed, the future of the Argentinian boss is already under scrutiny, especially given owner Todd Boehly went through three different managers last season. And now it's emerged he's lost one of his staff members less than four months after working together.

In the summer, it was confirmed that former Brighton stalwart Bruno Saltor had been added to the coaching staff. He'd moved to the club last season from the Seagulls along with Graham Potter, and even took interim charge for one game, a 0-0 draw with Liverpool.

But according to , Saltor has now left Chelsea. That's despite there being no formal announcement from the club, with his exit seemingly having been negotiated behind closed doors.

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The report claims that the club have paid the remainder of the 42-year-old's contract. It means that from the initial staff group that arrived at Stamford Bridge with Potter, only goalkeeper coach Ben Robert and data analyst Kyle Macaulay remain.

And details of his exit have emerged at an ironic time, just two days before Chelsea and Brighton face off in the League Cup on Wednesday night. The Spaniard spent seven years there as a player, and made 235 club appearances.

Bruno Saltor joined the Chelsea coaching staff in the summer (Chelsea FC via Getty Images)

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The significance of the clash is also now high for Pochetinno. With no European football this season, and his side already off the pace in the league table, defeat would leave the FA Cup as his only realistic chance of landing silverware.

That's despite Boehly spending just short of £400 million in the summer transfer window. And after the Villa defeat, his new manager was forced to admit that club bosses were discontented about the poor run of form.

"Of course, they’re disappointed," he said. "They arrived at the club and were so excited to build this project and, of course, they feel disappointed but they need to support the plan.”

Fraser Watson