October 1st 2023.
Gianfranco Zola has sympathy for Mauricio Pochettino. The Chelsea legend believes that the club have a major 'problem' on their hands as the pressure mounts on the current manager.
The Blues have had a dismal start to the season, collecting only five points from their opening six fixtures. Last summer, Pochettino oversaw around £400m of spending, which has taken the club's total under Todd Boehly to an astonishing £1.1bn.
However, the outlay has had little effect on the team's fortunes and the Blues must now face a daunting run of fixtures against the majority of the top six over the next two months.
Zola believes the biggest issue is that the supporters have yet to form an affinity with the new players. He said: "Pochettino has just one league win this term. The supporters don't identify with these players yet. There are a lot of new players, young ones, and they are not fulfilling the expectations of the supporters and that is creating, let's say, dissatisfaction."
The Italian believes that the team just needs time to develop a bond. He added: "When you invest so much money and you bring in so many new players the risk is you don't form a group because it's difficult. The players have to create a bond and it takes time. I hope the supporters understand the expectation level can't be like it was four or five years ago. This is not the same team now. This team is forming itself. That's the problem at the moment."
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