Pochettino not confident Blues could buy an Argentine club

By Matthew Ferris at Cobham

Mauricio Pochettino has invited the Argentinian President to watch Chelsea after Javier Milei claimed that the Chelsea ownership were looking to purchase a club in the country.

While Pochettino did not know whether there was any truth in these rumours, he said: “If he’s one day in London, [I will] invite him to come here, because he loves football.”

However, he was unsure of the logistics and whether the Argentinian fans would support the purchase. Clubs such as Estudiantes and Newell’s Old Boys have been linked with the American owners.

“I don’t know, it’s so difficult because its Argentina is a country that not normally, [do] people arrive from outside and buy clubs.

“The fans feel that they belong to the clubs and the clubs belong to them, and it’s not easy to change the mentality; maybe with time yes, but at the moment I don’t believe it’s going to be easy.”

The Argentine values celebrating cultural events at Chelsea though and referenced at Cobham how they recently celebrated Argentina Day.

“We always try to celebrate things here to create some nice atmosphere on the training ground and the staff is doing fantastic in the kitchen and canteen.”

Pochettino explained how he took the club's photographer to document the occasion and he is going to send those photos to a friend of the President to show him, “Look [at this], Chelsea”.

Chelsea fans’ adoption of Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds, which started when Crystal Palace’s DJ looked to pass the time as referee Michael Oliver sorted his technical difficulties out on Monday night, has now been well and truly adopted by the club.

The song rang out at Stamford Bridge last night after Chelsea’s youngsters lost 2-1 to PSV in the International Cup, and there is no doubt that the chant will become a regular occurrence in the Chelsea away end.

While Pochettino admitted he was too focused on the game to fall in love with the chant and sing along in his head like Connor Gallagher was doing, he expressed how much he valued music, and how he has used this in management.

“Music is so important for everyone, [it] can change your mood, can change your energy, can change everything.

“We used to do in Southampton and in Tottenham after every training session.

"We make them to run with music [with] a big speaker in middle of the pitch, all players choose different music and [we say] okay come on now we need to suffer but with music.”

While he has not introduced these techniques into his management style at Chelsea just yet, a big speaker may appear at Cobham in the near future.

Looking ahead to Saturday, Pochettino also encouraged former City players Raheem Sterling and Cole Palmer to celebrate if they netted against their former club.

He said that if “you kill your former club and after you say sorry, no [that is not normal].

“When you play for different badge and club you cannot stop your feelings, when you score it’s the most beautiful feelings that appear in your body. I think you need to celebrate, you are now playing for another team.”

Both players scored in the 4-4 draw in November, a result which would suit Chelsea even more this time as they travel to the Ethiad with very little expected of them.