Stan Collymore was amazed to hear Mauricio Pochettino speak about Everton’s Dele Alli during his first press conference as the Chelsea head coach.
Mauricio Pochettino, who’s now got to work during pre-season, addressed the national media a few days ago for the first time since he took charge as the new Blues manager.
Interestingly, the Argentine mentioned a former player during his first Chelsea press conference. He shared his concern for Alli’s career and his plans to speak to him.
“I hope to have some time to call and see because he is a great guy and I want to talk a little bit with him and hear. I want to help him and see what is going on with him. He is still young,” Pochettino said, as quoted by The Mirror.
“And for sure he has the mentality. Now it’s a long time since I spoke to him but I want to contact him again and see what is going on.”
Collymore has showered Pochettino with praise for his comments last week about Alli.
Collymore wrote in his CaughtOffside column: “I just wanted to mention Mauricio Pochettino and his offer of support to Dele. We all know the struggles Dele has faced over the past couple of years, so I thought for Pochettino to come out, in his very first press conference as Chelsea manager and reveal how he plans on contacting one of his former players to have a chat, was really something quite special.”
We don’t expect Chelsea fans to care too much about what’s going on with Everton’s Alli, whose career has fallen off a cliff in the past couple of years. In fact, he looks unrecognisable from the player that was once so effective at Tottenham under Pochettino’s management.
However, we can read a lot into the comments from Chelsea’s new man in the manager’s dugout.
He’s arrived at Stamford Bridge with a reputation of being a great man-manager, so it’s no surprise to hear him send a heartfelt message to a former player he’s coached.
Hopefully, plenty of Chelsea’s players are able to strike up a similar bond with Pochettino moving forward.
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