Next Chelsea manager favourites + odds: Predicted XIs for potential Pochettino replacements
Here we are again. Chelsea are searching for a new manager.
The Blues ended the 2023/24 campaign well, finishing sixth in the Premier League and securing a return to European football. But two days after their final game of the campaign, Chelsea announced the departure of Mauricio Pochettino.
The decision came by mutual consent, with no real reason given by the club’s sporting directors in their brief statement.
Read more: The football world reacts as Mauricio Pochettino leaves Chelsea
Reports have since emerged that there was a consensus between club and manager that there was a strategic mismatch, after an analytical review of the season.
Regardless, it means Chelsea are searching for their fourth permanent manager in just two years since the new ownership took control. Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter and now Pochettino have all fallen, with Bruno and Frank Lampard also having stints as caretaker and interim respectively.
The question is, who will be the next Chelsea manager?
| Next permanent Chelsea manager | Sky Bet | ||
| Roberto De Zerbi | 1/1 | ||
| Kieran McKenna | 3/1 | ||
| Thomas Frank | 7/1 | ||
| Ruben Amorim | 10/1 | ||
| Enzo Maresca | 14/1 | ||
| Jose Mourinho | 14/1 | ||
| Thomas Tuchel | 14/1 | ||
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Roberto De Zerbi
Before their final game of the season, Brighton announced that Roberto De Zerbi would be leaving the club. He immediately became odds-on favourite to be the next Bayern Munich manager. But he’s also favourite now to take over at Chelsea. Could the news of his departure have played a role in Chelsea pulling the trigger?
Chelsea have looked to Brighton a lot recently for players, staff and even transfer strategies. So it’s not inconceivable that they’ll go again. De Zerbi had a good first season at Brighton, continuing the work started by Graham Potter to lead the Seagulls to Europe.
Brighton’s European journey continued to the last 16 of the Europa League, but they were comfortably beaten by Roma and also struggled to keep up in the league.
De Zerbi does play the kind of football Chelsea’s board wants, attacking and possession-based, and it’s in a system that the Blues should be comfortable with given Pochettino’s use of the 4-2-3-1. So, on paper, Chelsea would hope this would be a straightforward transition.
The Italian likes inverted wingers, and may push Palmer back out to the right wing, with Raheem Sterling or Mykhaylo Mudryk on the left. Mudryk had two goals and seven assists in 19 games under De Zerbi at Shakhtar Donetsk. Christopher Nkunku will hope to have a better season fitness wise and would be first choice to play just behind the striker, who should be Nicolas Jackson.
The midfield duo will be an interesting situation, and may depend on the future of Conor Gallagher. Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo haven’t quite gelled together, but have performed well when the other isn’t on the pitch alongside them.
However, the downside of De Zerbi’s style of play is that the defence is often lacking. And that had been one of Chelsea’s recurring problems under Mauricio Pochettino. If you struggle to score, you have to be able to keep opponents out.
Kieran McKenna
When Kieran McKenna took over at Ipswich in December 2021, having previously managed Manchester United’s U18s, Red Devils fans were wishing the Tractor Boys good luck. And not because they wanted their man to do well, but because they thought Ipswich would need it.
Fast forward to May 2024 and McKenna is the next big thing in management in English football, having led Ipswich from League One to the Premier League. Their stay in the Championship lasted just one season with Ipswich finishing second to secure a long-awaited return to the top flight.
After starting his time as Ipswich manager with a back three, McKenna settled into a 4-2-3-1 which is what led the Tractor Boys to the Premier League. Now, where McKenna differs with his 4-2-3-1 is that he likes to use wingers on their stronger side if he– a left-footer on the left and a right-footer on the right.
So in the midfield, Palmer would likely play through the middle, with Noni Madueke on the left and Mudryk on the right. McKenna also likes to use his full-backs, so James and Chilwell will be key — assuming they’d be first-choice as captain and vice-captain respectively.
The rest of the team pretty much picks itself, though it would be subject to transfers in. And you can expect there to be many of them. It would also be interesting to see what Chelsea do with Omari Hutchinson should McKenna take charge, as the youngster thrived on loan at Ipswich.
Thomas Frank
Thomas Frank is another name often linked with Chelsea, for the stellar work he has done at Brentford. It hasn’t been completely plain sailing for the Dane in the Premier League, and they did struggle in 2023/24, but injuries played their part.
Now, Frank has spoken about this future, telling the Daily Mail: “If a big club one day comes to knock on my door, then I need to consider it.
“But it’s not something I’m hunting. I could stay in Brentford for, well, forever is probably a crazy long time but I could stay here for a further sustained period.”
There’s no denying Chelsea are a big club, and at the Blues Frank might stick with the 4-3-3 he returned to with Brentford at the end of the 2023/24 season.
Obviously, it feels like a big name has to miss out in the attack, with two wingers and a striker. In this instance, we could see Jackson pushed out to the left and Palmer on the right, with Nkunku through the middle.
There’s also the question of what happens in a three-man midfield. If it was certain that Chelsea would keep Conor Gallagher this summer, that wouldn’t be an issue. But he looks very likely to follow Pochettino out the door, with the club eager to sell. So we may actually see someone like Cesare Casadei join Fernandez and Caicedo in the midfield three — or a potential new signing.
Ruben Amorim
Chelsea always seem to be linked with Ruben Amorim, whether in the market for a manager or not. And he may be the ideal replacement in the eyes of a lot of Chelsea fans. The problem is, he’s the ideal manager for a lot of teams and Chelsea have a fight on their hands. In four years at Sporting CP, Amorim has ended the club’s 19-year league title drought and won it twice.
Amorim has pretty religiously stuck to a back three since taking over at Sporting CP, using more of a 3-4-3, with the front three being fluid. Chelsea do have players capable of playing with fluidity in attack, in Nkunku, Palmer and Jackson– all three can rotate across the front line. The wing-backs are also very important to Amorim, which would bring Chilwell back into the team and maybe have Malo Gusto on the right.
There is a lot of passing among the centre-backs, who need to be good on the ball, being critical to how Amorim plays. So Colwill will come in, but Disasi may lose out, not being as comfortable in passing as he is defending. Reece James may be an option at right centre-back, having played their before for club and country, while Benoit Badiashile is also a decent passer.
It may also see Robert Sanchez back in the fold, a goalkeeper preferred for his passing, even though Djordje Petrovic has done nothing wrong since coming into the team.
Enzo Maresca
Another promotion-winning manager to be linked to Chelsea, Enzo Maresca was the man tasked with getting Leicester back to the Premier League and he did a fine job at that.
The Leicester job was just Maresca’s second role as a first-team manager, and he left that job at Parma to become Pep Guardiola’s assistant at Manchester City. Under Guardiola Maresca would have learned a lot, and he took a mixture of a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 with him to Leicester.
His most-used was a 4-3-3, and in this formation the holding midfielder sat deep, while the other two roamed. Caicedo is likely to be the holding man, given his defensive advantage over Fernandez, who will do better in a roaming role. Casadei could also feature alongside Fernandez, having played in that role for Maresca on loan at Leicester in the first half of last season.
Obviously, Palmer gets pushed to the right wing, with Jackson a potential for the left, and Nkunku through the middle.
