Next Chelsea Manager: Mauricio Pochettino is a good fit but Boehly could cause issues

• Chelsea agree deal to land Poch for next season

• Young players at Chelsea ready to be moulded

• Boehly may not show the patience Poch needs

At the second time of asking Chelsea have got it right.

Todd Boehly dreams a little too big, throws his weight behind galaxy-brain ideas a little too readily, for an industry as complex and unforgiving as football, and it was always strange plumping for Graham Potter over Mauricio Pochettino.

The latter had experience of managing big egos and big transfer spends; of building long-term projects at the highest level in England.

The former was completely untested at a job of Chelsea's size, and therefore the more exciting, left-field appointment who could - like supposedly gaming the system with those eight-year player contracts - show how smart the new owner really was.

Of course, Boehly didn't appear to have taken into account how people might view him if it all blew up in his face.

Thankfully for Chelsea supporters he is ruthless enough to make the change and happy to move on to the second choice. And thankfully for Chelsea supporters Pochettino at Stamford Bridge makes sense. Probably.

Pochettino's tactics fit the squad profile

First of all, Pochettino is the right kind of tactician for Chelsea. Like Thomas Tuchel and unlike Potter, Pochettino's strategy revolves around hard pressing and quick, vertical transitions; on counter-pressing and, the urgent style of direct attacking football that this creates.

Pochettino has long admitted he has been heavily influenced in this regard by Marcelo Bielsa having played under the former Leeds manager at the start of his career in Argentina.

Chelsea have spent the last few years buying players to fit this mould. Benoit Badiashile is a line-breaking centre-back; Mykhailo Mudryk and Raheem Sterling are penetrating wide forwards; and Enzo Fernandez is always looking to push forward and play sharply through the lines.

Whether on purpose or not, Chelsea have been preparing for the counter-pressing school, yet initially chose a patient possession type of manager in Potter.

In terms of the finer points, Pochettino uses hard-running full-backs to provide width and, using automatisms to create preconditioned attacking moves built out from the back, makes overloads on one side before switching the ball to the other side.

Again, Chelsea have the right kind of player in almost all areas: intelligent footballers used to being coached to the highest level, with Reece James and Marc Cucurella potentially leading full-backs.

Man-management and his likely favourites

Tactics aside, Pochettino is very well liked by his players, with even the Paris Saint-Germain squad enjoying the way he manages a dressing room.

He is also a brilliant coach of individuals, moulding elite players like Philippe Coutinho at Espanyol and Harry Kane at Tottenham Hotspur, in each case highlighting his capacity to take young players and create something special.

We also know he can operate without much of a budget (which is surely Chelsea's immediate future after all that money was spent in the last two windows), and that he can be ruthless in clearing out dead wood.

Arguably the hardest task he faces this summer is finding a way to sell as many as a dozen first-team players to make space for a squad of a more manageable size.

And we can guess roughly which players he would ideally like to keep. Mason Mount and Conor Gallagher fit the profile of a proper Pochettino midfielder, while Fernandez and N'Golo Kante are world-class players.

In defence Thiago Silva's experience will be complimented by Badiashile and Wesley Fofana, who can both be sculpted, while in the attacking third Sterling, Mudryk, and Christopher Nkunku stand out as Pochettino favourites.

Then again, there aren't many players with obvious faults who need to be moved on.

Chelsea's problem is simply having too many names, not necessarily the wrong ones, and from Carney Chukwemueka to Kai Havertz to Ruben Loftus-Cheek there is raw talent ready to be formed into something else by a top-level coach like Pochettino.

Long-term thinking still a risk

We have seen from the Potter interlude that an unruly squad and impatient owners are a bad mix, and with Chelsea desperate to sell there is a huge risk they will not be able to get rid of many players.

There are currently 31 listed in the first team, with another four due to arrive in the summer and Chelsea needing a striker and a goalkeeper.

How on earth they trim that squad is anybody's guess, especially when so many only arrived in the last 12 months and on huge contracts. If they cannot, then even Pochettino will struggle to get people onside and form the kind of clique he needs to rebuild the club.

There is an argument, already, that Boehly should copy the Roman Abramovich approach and go for short-term drives at success via bursts from elite managers.

Then again, with some Pochettino coaching, tactical work, and love, it is possible to imagine a team with Silva and Badiashile, Fernandez and Kante, Mount and Mudryk, Sterling and Nkunku, racing out of the blocks next season and providing Chelsea with the fresh start they crave.

But Pochettino will need time and patience, from the fans, board, and players.

Potter never had that, and a year into the Boehly circus it would be naïve to predict stability in Chelsea's immediate future.

Every move Boehly makes is a gamble, a potential fad, and one that cannot be trusted. Even when he gets it right he might ultimately get it wrong.

Pochettino to Chelsea feels right. But there has never been so much work to do at Stamford Bridge.