Mauricio Pochettino leaves Chelsea by mutual consent

Pochettino guided Chelsea to a top six finish

Matt Law of The Telegraph broke the news on Tuesday night, just days after Pochettino had secured a top-six finish in his first season in charge.

Pochettino met sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, and co-controlling owner Behdad Eghbali over the course of several meetings before confirming his departure, just days before Chelsea's end of season review.

There isn't rumoured to be any tension between Pochettino or the board and that he has left on good terms.

Chelsea are now immediately looking at targeting a young and progressive head coach to take the club forward next season.

Among those said to be being considered include: Stuttgart’s Sebastian Hoeness, Girona’s Michel, Ipswich Town’s Kieran McKenna, who is also of interest to Brighton, and Leicester City’s Enzo Maresca.

The departure of Pochettino means he is the third permanent head coach to lose their job since the Clearlake Capital-Todd Boehly ownership began following the sackings of Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter.

After an extremely difficult start to the campaign, things began to pick up for Chelsea in the second half. The form of Cole Palmer and Conor Gallagher in particular were major highlights as the former went on to win the Premier League Young Player of the Year award after scoring 22 goals.

Under Pochettino's guidance the Blues were able to reach the Carabao Cup final and FA Cup semi finals before being beaten in both and eventually finished sixth, securing qualification for next season's Europa League.

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