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Mauricio Pochettino was caught in the middle of a row between Chelsea’s former stadium announcer and the club’s press officer, who was accused of ‘s*** management of a press conference’ after the Blues thrashed Everton 6-0.
The emphatic win over the Toffees on Monday night was marred by a squabble involving three Chelsea players over penalty-taking duties.
Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke forcefully took the ball off Malo Gusto’s hands after the Blues were awarded a penalty in the second half. The pair repeatedly shoved each other before Cole Palmer, who had won the spot kick and is the Blues regular penalty taker intervened alongside Conor Gallagher.
Palmer eventually managed to grab the ball and converted the penalty to score his fourth of the night and put Chelsea 5-0 up.
Pochettino was visibly incensed at the bizarre confrontation and appeared to jokingly take issue with being questioned about it during his post-match press conference.
A video shared by One Football, shows the Chelsea manager – who had wanted to talk about the incident – joke about the line of questioning as he left the media room at Stamford Bridge.
‘All day we talk about one thing,’ the Argentine told reporters referring to the penalty incident.
As he was about to leave the room, Pochettino turned back towards the press pack to reiterate the point.
‘You all [asked] one [question] all press conference.’
At that point Neil Barnett, Chelsea’s former pitchside announcer, then took issue with the club’s press officer, suggesting different questions may have been forthcoming had the press conference gone on for longer.
‘You stopped the press conference,’ he replied.
Pochettino continued: ‘Every question was in this way [about the penalty incident].’
As the Chelsea manager and the press officer eventually left the room, Barnett, who has been the host of The Football Show on US radio SiriusXM for 14 years, retorted: ‘S*** management of a press conference’.
Speaking in his press conference about the penalty fiasco earlier on, Pochettino said: ‘First of all, I want to tell you to make clear that they know, the players know, the staff know, the club know, that the taker on penalties is Cole Palmer.
‘It is a shame. I am so, so upset about this situation. We are talking in the dressing room about the image that we send because this is Monday night football and in every single country they were watching the game.
‘We cannot send this type of image. It is a shame and I want to apologise to football people and our fans because that is unacceptable.’
Pochettino went on to say Madueke and Jackson would be ‘out’ if they acted in that way again.
‘I told them this is the last time I can’t accept this type of behaviour. They’re all, involved in this situation, all out next time,’ he told Sky Sports.
Meanwhile, Palmer confirmed his status as Chelsea’s designed penalty-taker in a post-match interview on NBC Sports.
‘Everyone wants to score, especially the attackers. It’s nothing, we have spoken about it, we have brushed it under the carpet,’ he said.
‘I think it just shows the mentality of the players, they want to take it, but the gaffer has told us, it’s been brushed aside and I’m sure it won’t happen again.’
Pressed on whether he was Chelsea’s first-choice to take penalties, Palmer then replied: ‘Well, I am now, yes.’
