Mauricio Pochettino leaves Chelsea after 1 season in charge - ESPN

Mauricio Pochettino has left Chelsea by mutual consent after just one season in charge, the club confirmed in a statement Tuesday.

Sources told ESPN that Pochettino, 52, departed following talks in the past 48 hours with co-owner Behdad Eghbali and co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart.

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Pochettino, who also publicly confirmed he had dinner with co-owner Todd Boehly on Friday, guided Chelsea to a sixth-place finish in the Premier League, the Carabao Cup final and the FA Cup semifinals during his solitary campaign.

Sources insisted that although Pochettino had a year remaining on his contract, the decision was amicable on both sides.

Stewart and Winstanley said in a club statement: «On behalf of everyone at Chelsea, we would like to express our gratitude to Mauricio for his service this season. He will be welcome back to Stamford Bridge any time and we wish him all the very best in his future coaching career.»

Pochettino said: «Thank you to the Chelsea ownership group and sporting directors for the opportunity to be part of this football club's history. The club is now well positioned to keep moving forward in the Premier League and Europe in the years to come.»

Pochettino's coaching staff — Jesus Perez, Miguel d'Agostino, Toni Jimenez and Sebastiano Pochettino — have all also left the club.

Sources told ESPN that there has been a split for some time within the Chelsea hierarchy over whether to persist with Pochettino after a disappointing campaign in which they were languishing in midtable despite spending £1 billion ($1.27 billion) on new players since the Boehly-Clearlake Capital takeover of May 2022.

Sources told ESPN that Boehly was keen on