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After the exodus: confused Chelsea have left Pochettino to build with youth | Jonathan Wilson

Half of Chelsea’s squad are there on potential rather than proven ability – it could be exciting but it creates problemsThe moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligned with Mars. Birds are flying backwards and the sun has risen in the west. A strange light pulses in the sky over Stamford Bridge. Most startlingly of all, eight years after signing from Augsburg for £14m, the Ghana left-back Baba Rahman has finally left Chelsea. Truly, a new age is upon us.After the waves of signings last season, this summer of Todd Boehly’s Great Disruption was always going to be about consolidation and retrenchment. Quite aside from financial fair play issues, a first-team squad of 33, some of them forced...

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Mauricio Pochettino landing at Chelsea carries an irresistible sense of jeopardy | Jonathan Liew

Coach and club are not natural bedfellows, so Argentinian will need time and must show he now knows how to tame chaos“Every week I am fired,” complained Mauricio Pochettino last June, a few weeks before Paris Saint-Germain fired him. “I like Manchester City, because they gave Guardiola the opportunity to build. They gave him time. At PSG, you also need that. By giving serenity to this project, we will be close to winning the Champions League.”Serenity. Yes. Well, good luck with that. One of the fundamentals of coaching is that vacancies rarely turn up at clubs where everything is running smoothly. Yet even allowing for this, Pochettino’s appointment at Chelsea carries its own irresistible quantum of jeopardy. A coach who...

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Tottenham should be wary of being burned by the allure of an old flame | Jonathan Liew

Spurs have stagnated since the departure of Mauricio Pochettino but must resist the temptation to reappoint himFill the bowl of lemons. Dust off the old purple tracksuit. Someone drive down to Big Yellow and get Danny Rose out of storage. Lay palm leaves across Hotspur Way, let the bells ring out across Enfield, make a small summer transfer budget available and prepare for the return of the chosen.Perhaps it really will be that simple. The great travel writer Bill Bryson once observed that there were three things you can’t do in life. You can’t beat the phone company. You can’t get a waiter to see you until he’s ready to see you. And you can’t go home again. For the...

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