Mauricio Pochettino admits some of his Chelsea youngsters are ‘struggling to deal with the pressure’ of playing for the club.
The Argentine took charge at Stamford Bridge during another period of heavy spending last year. summer of spending last year.
The Blues have signed 28 players in total since Todd Boehly’s takeover and of last summer’s arrivals, only Alex Disasi and Christopher Nkunku are over the age of 23.
Cole Palmer, 21, has been the club’s standout player this season, leading the goal scoring charts and forcing his way into the England squad since his arrival from Manchester City.
Pochettino is confident Palmer already knows how to deal with the demands of playing at a club like Chelsea but says that is not the case elsewhere in the squad.
‘In the same time that you ask me about Cole Palmer, not all the players have the same process to be settled at the club or to perform,’ Pochettino said.
‘We are in a process that the main group, the main young players … of course, they struggle a little bit to deal with the pressure to play for Chelsea.
‘That is the thing we are aware of and we are focused on trying to help them in all the areas.
‘It’s not only to help them in the two hours of training. We have spent a lot of time talking [with them], and talking, too, with the people that work around these guys.
‘If we can help them in all the different areas in their life, I think after [that] the most easy thing is to help them perform on the pitch.’
Chelsea take on Leicester City in their FA Cup quarter-final showdown on Sunday. The two sides met in the final three years ago when Youri Tielemans scored a stunning late winner.
In a measure of the upheaval that has taken place at Chelsea since then, only Reece James, Ben Chilwell and Thiago Silva remain from that 2021 squad.
