‘The greatest team in England over the last 15 years’ – Pochettino wants to build winning culture at the Bridge

Mauricio Pochettino claims his new side Chelsea have been England’s most dominant club over the last 15 years as he began his reign as the new boss of the west Londoners at the start of this week.

The former Spurs and Southampton manager has taken charge of 256 Premier League games in his career, winning 132 times in the English top flight.

He guided Tottenham to a Champions League final and took Southampton to an eighth-placed finish in the Premier League.

Pochettino has also had managerial spells at Espanyol and Paris Saint Germain.

The 51-year-old is the fourth permanent manager of the Todd Boehly-led Chelsea consortium after Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter were both sacked during last season.

Former Blues midfielder and boss Frank Lampard was given the final 11 games of last season but only won once – a 3-1 win at Bournemouth – during his caretaker spell.

Speaking in an interview with the official club website, the Argentine head coach said: “It is a pleasure and honour to now be involved with Chelsea Football Club.

“We are so excited, and I know Chelsea very well – it is one of the greatest clubs in the world.

“It was easy for us to make the decision to move here. It’s important there is a culture of winning.

“In the last 10, 12, 15 years, Chelsea is the greatest team in England.

“I know the Premier League very well and what the culture of Chelsea means – our fans are excited to again be on the road of trying to win.

“We are excited to work with a very young team with a different approach than in the past.

“But we all need to understand that we have to work really hard and create a very good atmosphere at the training ground to build success for the team in the next few years.”

Chelsea have already splashed £52million on RB Leipzig’s Christopher Nkunku. Senegal forward Nicolas Jackson has arrived from Villarreal in a deal worth a reported £32m.

‘It is exciting for us because we love good players – players with the capacity and talent,” Pochettino said. “But we want people who want to be with us at this club and be really open to helping the club achieve what we want.

“There are always up and downs in the history of football, but Chelsea is a club where it is impossible to have these up and downs.

“We need to be sure that we bring what the club needs to be at the top, because the history of the club is to be at the top.”

Pochettino managed 16 times against his new side during his tenure at White Hart Lane and St Mary’s, winning six matches against the Blues.

He was sacked by Tottenham in 2019 after five years with the north Londoners.

“Our past is our past,” he added.

“We respect and are proud of our past, but now is the time to build a new club with different fans that behave and are different to other clubs.

“Our responsibility is to build a very good relationship with our new fans. We hope we can create this good feeling as soon as possible, but I know very well we need to create this good feeling around the signals the team sends to them.

“We need to be a team that shows togetherness, cares about the club, cares about the fans and that fights until the end for the badge.”

Chelsea finished 12th in the Premier League last season, their lowest finish in the division since the 1993-94 season, when they were 14th.

“The objective is to win because football is about winning – the most important thing is to win,” said Pochettino, whose Chelsea deal runs until at least 2025.

“We want to win, be competitive, be animals that want to compete every week and in every game. But we need to translate before on the training ground and to train in this way.

“We need to be really tough to try to create that mentality and the feeling that we can beat anyone.”