Mauricio Pochettino looks like a dead man walking at Chelsea, with it now being only a matter of time before owner Todd Boehly swings the axe.
The Stamford Bridge job has become one of football’s most feared posioned chalices, with Boehly following the same ruthless regime as his predeccessor Roman Abramovich and cutting the figurehead in the dugout once results don’t immediately shine.
Pochettino has been afforded patience this season, though the recent Carabao Cup final defeat in extra-time to what was essentially Liverpool’s reserve team appears to be the underlying final straw.
Now, interestingly, Chelsea appear to be ready to let history repeat itself and tread back down a similar path to the one they took some 12 years ago when hiring Andre Villas-Boas.
Villas-Boas was seen as the hot coach on the block in European football, and was the name on everyone’s lips when it came to proclaiming the next superstar manager.
Chelsea, as a result, did only what they knew best and surged in to acquire the young manager armed with bundles of cash. Villas-Boas took the helm at Stamford Bridge as a fresh faced 33-year-old, with limited experience to his name but a rather glittering spell in Portuguese football.
The Blues paid Porto a then world record €15 million (£13.3 million) compensation fee to get their man, and they sacked a certain Carlo Ancelotti to make it all possible.
Ancelotti, like Pochettino is now, stood as one of the biggest names in football management. Now, over a decade on, Chelsea appear set to do away with Pochettino and swoop for Sporting Lisbon boss Ruben Amorim.
While Amorim is 39 and older than Villas-Boas is when he arrived at the Bridge, he still remains one of the younger coaches on the European circuit. Like Villas-Boas, however, Amorim has only experience of working in Portuguese football; with fleeting spells at Braga and Sporting under his belt.
According to The Guardian, Amorim is being strongly considered by Chelsea as a replacement for Pochettino, should the Argentine be fired after recently dropping yet more Premier League points, in the 2-2 draw with strugglers Brentford.
This, however, is where Liverpool come into play. The Reds are already well under way with the process of searching for a manager, after Jurgen Klopp announced he would step down at the end of the season and take a break.
It is understood that Liverpool’s FSG owners and their astute team of data analysts have earmarked Amorim as a hot candidate for the position, and will offer the Sporting boss the opportunity of an interview following the conclusion of the season.
For Chelsea, who will not be able to boast Champions League football next season given the Blues lie several places away from the top four positions, the onus is on now to beat Liverpool to the punch or else risk losing out.
Liverpool’s interest is tipped to provoke Boehly into a snap-happy decision, which usually involves limited planning. The same thing could be said for the summer transfer debacle regarding Moises Caicedo, whereby a late Liverpool bid left Boehly reeling and Chelsea duly coughed up a British transfer record £115m.
Caicedo has since been largely underwhelming, and was outplayed by Liverpool’s academy starlets during the Carabao Cup final heroics.
For Chelsea, recruiting Amorim provides the opportunity to repeat the Villas-Boas tactic but this time get everything right.
