Chelsea should have persuaded ex-Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino into taking the hot seat at Stamford Bridge, according to Paul Merson.

The Sky Sports pundit believes the former Spurs boss would have been open to the post if the Blues had made a move for the 48-year-old before he took on the role as Paris Saint-Germain head coach:

“I know Pochettino took the PSG job at the start of January but Chelsea must have known they were going to sack Frank Lampard. They could have marked Pochettino’s card and asked him to wait. I think Pochettino would rather be manager of Chelsea than PSG.”

“It’s more of a challenge for a start. In Paris all he has to do to win that league is make sure his players remember their boots every week. And he surely would have loved coming back to London to try and show Spurs they’d made a mistake getting rid of him.”

Merson was also heavily critical of Thomas Tuchel with the pundit questioning why the German has only been given a short-term contract by Chelsea:

“They’ve only given Tuchel an 18-month contract, when they gave Frank Lampard three years. If he’s such a good manager, why is his contract so short? It shows what they must think of him really. He was probably the best could get at short notice. But he has a history of being high maintenance and if he falls out with the people upstairs like he has at other clubs, he won’t last long.”

Those are strong words from Merson and it remains to be seen whether the Blues were right to favour Tuchel above Pochettino. It could well be the case that no decision was made on Frank Lampard’s future when the Argentine decided to join PSG anyway so it’s probably wise not to wonder what might have been.

Tuchel will certainly need more time to get used to English football but one thing he does have over Pochettino is trophies and plenty of them.