Mauricio Pochettino stated that Chelsea showed “great improvement” during his single season as head coach, making his first public comments since leaving Stamford Bridge. The Argentine coach parted ways with the club by mutual consent last month, despite a strong and turbulent end to the season in which the club spent much of the campaign languishing in mid-table in the Premier League.
The Blues won their last five games and finished sixth, securing a spot in the Conference League. They also reached the final of the League Cup and the semi-finals of the FA Cup.
On Monday, Chelsea appointed Leicester City manager Enzo Maresca as Pochettino’s successor on a five-year contract.
Addressing the club’s owners and fans via social media, the 52-year-old Pochettino said he had worked hard to “give them a Chelsea to be proud of.”
The former Tottenham and Paris Saint-Germain manager said the team had made progress after finishing 12th in the Premier League in the 2022/23 season.
“I am very pleased with the level the team reached and how the players and staff worked so hard to raise their standards. They deserve great credit, and I hope they felt that in how they performed on the pitch,” Pochettino said in an Instagram post on Tuesday.
“We know there were highs and lows, but we always believed in this team and that we would reach a consistent level. I believe that the experiences of this season and the great improvement we saw will hopefully only make the players stronger for the future. It was a pleasure to work with all of them, and we appreciate the strong bonds we created over the past year,” the coach added.
Pochettino said he would return to Stamford Bridge on Sunday for the annual Soccer Aid charity match, which raises funds for UNICEF, where he will manage a World XI team against an England team.