Why Chelsea are keeping two of Graham Potter’s staff for another season

Chelsea’s staffing situation has frankly been a mess for a while.

A glance at the club website shows a whole host of players from the Graham Potter regime still hanging around, mainly because they were only appointed in September and the club can’t face the embarrassment and cost of sacking them, it seems.

But the start of the Mauricio Pochettino era this week is starting to tell us who is going to stay and who is going to go. Bruno Saltor was pictured in his training kit working with the players, so he’s in.

According to Nizaar Kinsella’s piece today, Ben Roberts has been shifted around from being simply a goalkeeping coach to someone who oversees the keepers more generally, at Chelsea and at new sister club Strasbourg. Kinsella also points to how “respected” Saltor is and how the decision to keep him will be a popular one.

Bjorn Hamberg has left however, creating space for Pochettino to bring his own staff in. There could be further streamlining in the future, but for now this creates a nice balance between the old and the new.

“Influential assistant” Jesus Perez is going to become a familiar face for Chelsea fans, and as well as him and his legendary fitness drills we will also see Miguel D’Agostino join, along with Pochettino’s son Sebastiano.

All three are at work at Cobham as we write, figuring out their new surroundings and their new groups ahead of the new season.