Mauricio Pochettino has suggested that he could leave Chelsea of his own accord this summer rather than the club deciding to sack him.
The future of Pochettino, 52, has been the source of increasing scrutiny with the head coach admitting recently that he has not spoken to the co-owners for a few months.
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The Argentine has just one year left on his contract with the option for another 12 months. This week, Chelsea chairman Todd Boehly appeared to back him publicly by talking about ‘beautiful football’ and the project coming together in recent weeks.
Pochettino has also revealed he has started working on plans for pre-season and the next campaign. However, when pushed by The Athletic to confirm this was a sign he was definitely going to be at Stamford Bridge for the 2024-25 season, he refused to do so.
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He said: “Look, it is not important. The most important thing is to keep going working if we are all happy, not only the owners happy with us, the sporting directors with us, or us with the organisation the club is building here because then we are all under assessment.
“If we are happy, perfect. But it is not only if the owner are happy or the sporting directors are happy. If we are happy, you need to ask also because we said ‘look maybe we are not happy with certain situations and maybe we are not happy and we need to split.’ It is not going to be the first time that a coaching staff decide at the end of the season not to keep going.
“There are two parts who can take a decision. It is not only because Chelsea are not happy, the owners are not happy, the sporting directors are not happy, maybe we are not happy because we arrived here with some job to do but in the end it has not happened what we expect. Maybe we are not happy.
“I don’t say that I am not happy but always it is lacking one side. Maybe the other side say ‘OK, maybe until here’ and we split. It is not a problem. It is not going to be the end of the world.”
Chelsea go into their match at Nottingham Forest on Saturday sitting in seventh place in the Premier League, their highest position this term.
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(Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
