SCHTUM-FORD BRIDGE
Mauricio Pochettino aims dig at ex-Chelsea chiefs Graham Potter & Thomas Tuchel for Blues fans’ silence at home
Blues icon Pat Nevin recently slammed the flat atmosphere - but Poch has vowed to breathe life back into the ground
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MAURICIO POCHETTINO had a dig at Chelsea predecessors Graham Potter and Thomas Tuchel over silent Stamford Bridge.
Former Chelsea star Pat Nevin compared his old ground to a “mausoleum” — where the dead go to rest.
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Boss Pochettino bids to breathe new life into the Blues by reaching next month’s Carabao Cup final — but must first overturn Middlesbrough’s 1-0 semi-final first-leg lead tonight.
Nevin said: “My beloved Chelsea at Stamford Bridge regularly has the matchday atmosphere of a mausoleum on a rainy Monday. Quite fitting as there is a cemetery just behind the main stand.”
Pochettino claims he is paying the price for years of turmoil under Potter and Tuchel, while there was also a caretaker spell for club favourite Frank Lampard.
Chelsea will be roared on by most of the 40,000-capacity stadium but the second leg only sold out yesterday.
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Pochettino said: “We are paying now [for] the effect of 18 months.
“We have been here for six months and sometimes, for us, it is difficult to appreciate or to compare.
“We arrived this season and it is only six months. It is true we are getting better results now. But the disappointment for the fans is coming from behind and last season.
“Now people can give their opinion about this, maybe it is a little bit more flat and not good, because maybe it has been disappointing for a long period. But in how we feel, Stamford Bridge is very good.
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“In a few periods in some games, like Brentford or Nottingham Forest, the energy was really down because the team didn’t engage the fans. That is our mistake.
“But in the rest of the games — Arsenal, City, Brighton, Liverpool — the fans were really good.”
Chelsea changed owners and fired two managers in Tuchel and Potter before Pochettino arrived last July.
Form has been patchy and they trail to Hayden Hackney’s first-leg winner ahead of tonight’s decider.
Relations between fans and players are strained. Chelsea supporters who travelled more than 200 miles for the first leg two weeks ago claimed they were snubbed by at the final whistle.
Pochettino said: “We all need to learn. The players were so disappointed. Sometimes you can be so upset that you don’t want to think too much.
“You just want to go inside into the dressing room and go home because you are really angry.
“If we need to apologise, I am the first to do that if they didn’t feel cared for by our players. But I don’t think this was the intention.”
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