Former Chelsea striker Carlton Cole is shocked that Blues manager Mauricio Pochettino went and hugged winger Noni Madueke when he took him off against Everton last night.
Chelsea were thrashing Everton when Pochettino decided to remove Madueke to give some game time to midfielder Carney Chukwuemeka.
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Madueke came off but looked unhappy to come off, and before that, he was involved in the embarrassing and disgusting penalty incident where he and striker Nicolas Jackson were seen physically fighting almost to get the ball from Cole Palmer in order for one of them to take the penalty themselves. It was dramatic scenes that really did end up taking away the attention from an emphatic and impressive 6-0 win for Chelsea.
Former Blues man Cole was speaking to talkSPORT about the incident, in quotes picked up by Chels HQ.
He said: “Mauricio Pochettino took Noni Madueke off, then what does he do? He hugs him. I would’ve said, ‘Go down the tunnel, I’ll see you after the game. I don’t want to talk to you right now, I don’t want to see you on the bench either. You instigated it’.”
He’s got a real point here. Even though Pochettino’s post-match words were spot on when talking about the incident and he certainly made his feelings clear to Madueke and Jackson on this, but hugging the player when he bought him off is not something you want to see after he has just done his very best to embarrass and undermine you and the football club in front of our own fans.
Obviously these are young players and they will learn from this, but I don’t think that was the right moment for an arm around the shoulder and that should really come later on when things have calmed down a little bit.
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