Pochettino sack? FA Cup or bust for Chelsea boss as Diego Simeone tipped to replace him

FA Cup glory should grant Mauricio Pochettino another season at Stamford Bridge; otherwise, it’s time for Todd Boehly to play opposites and hire the man made for Chelsea: Diego Simeone.

“For a second time, FA Cup, Carabao Cup, we are going to Wembley. When I arrived in England at Southampton, they said, ‘we need to go to Wembley, we need to go to Wembley’. In Tottenham, ‘we need to go to Wembley, we need to go to Wembley’. Now look in nine months in two different competitions we got to Wembley and we need to enjoy and we need to trust more.”

If we take ‘going to Wembley’ as meaning a League Cup final or an FA Cup semi-final/final, Chelsea have managed that feat 26 times in the last two decades. It’s not the feather in the cap Pochettino would have us believe, and drawing favourable comparisons to Southampton and Tottenham is an odd tactic given a) it highlights his lack of cup success at those clubs and b) as he’s said on numerous occasions this season, expectations at Chelsea are far higher.

Chelsea fans aren’t saying ‘we need to go to Wembley, we need to go to Wembley’ because they’re always going to Wembley. What they haven’t been able to do in recent times is celebrate a trophy, with their last six Wembley finals all ending in defeat. Break that hoodoo and Pochettino will have earned another season at Stamford Bridge, whether the fans like it or not.

Possibly as important as claiming the actual silverware will be victory over Manchester City in the semi-final, and likely Manchester United in the final, adding further credit to the Big Six bank which has been Pochettino’s saving grace thus far.

They were comprehensively beaten by Liverpool and Manchester United in the Premier League, but have beaten Tottenham away in that madness of a game, drew with Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City at home – in games they probably should have won – and clung to a point at the Etihad having again caused Pep Guardiola’s side problems on the break. The Carabao Cup final ended in defeat, but they had the better of it in normal time.

Those games, against teams Chelsea are aiming to fight for titles, have offered more hope than anything this season. Arsenal, Spurs and United offer further opportunities in the Premier League, but victory under pressure at Wembley – with entry into the Europa League a hugely significant carrot on top of the trophy – will be the greatest harbinger of success for the Pochettino project.

Reports suggest Todd Boehly and Clearlake want Pochettino to remain whether they achieve glory or not, with a general upward trend in results and performances of late providing sufficient evidence in their eyes that he’s the right person to develop this group of young players, most of whom get on very well with a coach famed for his man-management. That said, Chelsea are ‘succession planning’, with the owners well aware that they will have little choice if the fanbase turns to the extent that saw them forced to send Graham Potter packing.

Hansi Flick is currently the favourite, while Ruben Amorim, Roberto De Zerbi and Michel Sanchez are all tipped to be in the mix should Pochettino be shown the door. But having given a couple of nice guys a chance, Chelsea should lean into a not-unreasonable belief that much of their success this century has come because they’ve had managers who, for want of a better phrase, have f***ed sh*t up. Chelsea fans loved that they were hated under Jose Mourinho, and to a lesser degree under Antonio Conte and Thomas Tuchel.

There is arguably no manager in world football despised more than Diego Simeone, but it’s the disparity between that hatred of others and the love of his own fans that should make him such an appealing option for Chelsea supporters, who have sorely missed the ‘us against them’ philosophy of the pr*cks that came before Potter and Pochettino.

They want to see someone dancing down the touchline and pulling a hammy, kicking every ball and refusing to shake the hand of opposition managers.

Diego Simeone is adored by the Atletico Madrid fans.

There are significant barriers to Chelsea hiring Simeone, not least the three-year contract he signed in November, along with the fact that he is Atletico Madrid, and him being anything other than manager of the club he’s been at since 2011 would feel alien enough for everyone else, let alone the man himself, who would presumably need twice as a long a break as Jurgen Klopp given the energy he exerts on a matchday.

Another impediment is Boehly and Behdad Eghbali’s apparent obsession with doing the exact opposite of their predecessor Roman Abramovich, whose methods were questionable, unethical and illegal, but – and it feels like the new owners should pay more attention to this – inarguably successful.

Abramovich would have hired Simeone if given the chance, which may well present itself should he take Atletico all the way in the Champions League, which looks more possible after a favourable draw which sees them first take on Borussia Dortmund before a semi-final against either Barcelona or Paris Saint-Germain.

It would be the most fitting end for a manager with nothing left to achieve at his current club, offering Chelsea the opportunity to snag a leader who fits the ethos of old and flies in the face of a current regime that needs a trophy to keep the wolves from scratching through Pochettino’s already splintered door.