Mauricio Pochettino has left Chelsea by mutual consent after less than a year in charge.

Despite finishing sixth in the Premier League, which was a significant improvement from the previous season, the former Spurs boss is the third permanent coach to leave the club since the 2022 takeover.

Uncertainty surrounded Pochettino’s position throughout the season, with the team starting poorly before a turnaround in fortunes from February.

Following a meeting with sporting directors and co-owner Behdad Eghbali, Pochettino agreed to his departure.

The Argentine coach had hinted that his future at the club was not solely in his hands ahead of the end of the season.

“Look, it is not important,” Pochettino said.

“The most important thing is to keep going working if we are all happy, not only the owners happy with us, the sporting directors with us, or us with the organisation the club is building here because then we are all under assessment.

“If we are happy, perfect. But it is not only if the owner are happy or the sporting directors are happy. If we are happy, you need to ask also because we said ‘look maybe we are not happy with certain situations and maybe we are not happy and we need to split.

“It is not going to be the first time that a coaching staff decide at the end of the season not to keep going. But understand that it is always the opposite way, always the owners or the sporting director.

“They can say tomorrow ‘until here, we arrive’ or maybe tomorrow I can say ‘look, I want to leave.’ There are two parts who can take a decision. It is not only because Chelsea are not happy, the owners are not happy, the sporting directors are not happy, maybe we are not happy because we arrived here with some job to do but in the end it has not happened what we expect. Maybe we aren’t happy. I don’t say that I am not happy but always it is lacking one side. Maybe the other side say ‘OK, maybe until here’ and we split. It is not a problem. It is not going to be the end of the world.”