Chelsea can fix Todd Boehly's biggest mistake by reappointing Thomas Tuchel this summer - the Blues can't go on under Mauricio Pochettino

Pochettino really, really needed to win the Carabao Cup final. In form and coming up against Jurgen Klopp's injury-ravaged Liverpool side in Sunday's Wembley showpiece, this was a golden opportunity for the Argentine to shake the tag of lovable loser and reunite a splintered fanbase with a much-needed trophy.

But Chelsea blew it, spurning numerous chances and fatally sitting deep in extra-time in the hope of reaching penalties, with Virgil van Dijk towering to head a late winner for the Reds. Now, their chances of achieving any semblance of success this season are extremely slim at best.

The club's hierarchy will supposedly only review Pochettino's position at the end of the season, but if things do not improve drastically between now and then he will have very little to show for his work, with Chelsea still struggling to escape the clutches of mid-table in the Premier League. The FA Cup could offer some salvation, but the Blues are far from favourites with Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United all still in contention there.

While performances on the pitch have certainly undermined Pochettino's durability in the role, an undercurrent of toxicity off it has left him in a seemingly untenable position.

Despite being viewed as technically the right man for the job of galvanising a young Chelsea squad and guiding them through a transition, he has never been fully accepted by a demanding and often fickle fanbase - almost entirely a result of his enduring connection with fierce London rivals Tottenham.

His case has not been helped by the supporters' reception to some of his honest views on the club's current standing, including labelling them 'mid-table' and admitting Liverpool were far superior rather than pointing to questionable refereeing decisions in the recent 4-1 thumping in the league.

You will never hear his name reverberating around Stamford Bridge, for example, and indeed the atmosphere at home games has soured to an alarming extent over the past 12 months, with the slow progress under Pochettino only deepening the gloom in the first half of 2023-24.

There were widespread calls for his head when Chelsea's form took a nosedive at the turn of the month. Those became muted during an improved three-game unbeaten spell, but the cup final defeat was more than enough to crank up the volume again.

It has already reached the point where it feels like it will take a miracle to win over a fanbase that is very much ready to see him lose his job.

As a result of all of that, it feels increasingly likely that the Chelsea hierarchy will decide to cut ties with Pochettino when they sit down to review his position at the end of the season - barring significant movement up the Premier League table or an unlikely FA Cup crown.

If their decision-makers do find themselves having to appoint what would already be the fifth manager of their brief stewardship, then reunifying the fanbase and restoring a long-lost connection between the coaches, playing staff and the supporters must be one of their highest priorities. Tuchel's return would achieve that.

Despite Chelsea's inconsistent form in the second half of his tenure and question marks over his man-management as time went on, the German tactician is still revered by the Stamford Bridge faithful - thanks in no small part to the remarkable Champions League triumph in 2021, and his tactful handling of one of the most torrid periods in the club's modern history, as it went through an enforced change of ownership under government sanctions on former owner and oligarch Roman Abramovich, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine two years ago.

'Super Tommy Tuchel' just seemed to get it. Indeed, it's been reported that he aligned more closely with Chelsea than any other club he has managed, and that feeling was and is still reciprocated by the supporters - with the vast majority unexpectedly arriving at the conclusion that he was the perfect fit. He would be welcomed back with open arms.

One thing that contributed to Tuchel's eventual demise was his clear frustration at having to work closely with then-self-appointed sporting director Boehly on transfer strategy in the summer of 2022, which he clearly felt was taking him away from his coaching responsibilities.

“I am in contact with Todd directly on a daily basis, and sometimes more than once on a daily basis,” Tuchel said at the time. "My concern is for the team to be competitive. This is where my focus is and has to be. For this we have to invest a lot of time and we need to be hands-on. There is no other way.

"It is very time-consuming. It’s not my favourite thing to do and in the long run the focus has to be on coaching because it is why I am here."

Things would be different now, though, with Boehly since taking more of a back seat following a fairly disastrous transfer window that summer. The majority of the responsibility for identifying targets has now been passed down to sporting directors Lawrence Stewart and Paul Winstanley, although it is still described as a collaborative effort alongside the manager.

Pochettino has said that he is in contact with the hierarchy "every single day", but Tuchel should expect to be more hands-off with this new structure, having input on his own terms.

Another bone of contention for Tuchel was that he was not given what he wanted in that now-infamous transfer window, with Chelsea missing out on multiple first-choice targets, such as Frenkie de Jong and Raphinha, that summer.

Speaking after a 4-0 pre-season friendly mauling by Arsenal in the USA, a precursor to an awful 2022-23 campaign, Tuchel said: “I am far from relaxed. We were simply not good enough. We were simply not competitive. We had an urgent appeal for quality players, a huge amount of quality players. We got two quality players but we are not competitive like this."

Ironically, almost in an admission of wrongdoing, Chelsea's owners have shown a ruthless determination to land their top targets in the subsequent windows, with the Boehly-Clearlake consortium splurging an ungodly amount - north of £1 billion ($1.27bn) - to build what they had hoped would be a competitive squad.

The group Tuchel would inherit is brimming with untapped potential, but it's likely the Blues will undergo another mini-overhaul in the summer with some having already outstayed their welcome.

Financial fair play (FFP) and the Premier League's profit and sustainability rules (PSR) are increasingly a consideration, especially without European football, but it seems Tuchel would be backed in the transfer market this time around.

As much as Chelsea might want him back, Tuchel could have his pick of some of Europe's elite clubs once he leaves Bayern in the summer.

It has been reported that he wants to return to the Premier League, but that doesn't necessarily mean a Stamford Bridge comeback. He is supposedly keen to replace Erik ten Hag at Man Utd, with the Dutchman's own future in doubt following Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS' minority takeover at Man Utd.

The German has also been tenuously linked with replacing compatriot Jurgen Klopp for the second time in his career, this time at Liverpool - although Xabi Alonso seems to be the favourite for a huge job at Anfield.

Barcelona is another possibility. Xavi has already announced his resignation ahead of the summer, and Tuchel is apparently an option to succeed him due to his Champions League pedigree - a competition the Blaugrana haven't won since 2015. However, whether Tuchel would want to continue his career in a similarly political environment to Bayern's remains to be seen.

There is, though, the possibility that Tuchel's relationship with the current Chelsea hierarchy is irreparably damaged, however deep his connection with the fans might be.

The German had a tense relationship with co-owner Behdad Eghbali, who still has a hands-on presence today, and he was once described as a "nightmare" to work with on recruitment to another Premier League executive by Boehly, according to The Athletic.

He was also irked by the decision to axe director Marina Granovskaia and technical and performance advisor Petr Cech, and indeed the timing of their departures on the eve of the transfer period beginning in June 2022.

The 50-year-old was not beyond reproach himself, either, despite the decision to sack him clearly proving to be a mistake after a tortuous 18 months. His renowned man-management capabilities seemed to deteriorate as time went on at Chelsea, perhaps a result of the gruelling takeover process weighing on him and of his marriage breaking down away from the pitch.

He has struggled to recapture that key attribute in Munich, too, with the manager seemingly at odds with several senior figures at Bayern - although that is caveated by the meddling of several outspoken former players who carry great influence at the Allianz Arena.

He was also guilty of failing to get the best out of a raft of extremely costly, talented attacking players in the form of Romelu Lukaku, Kai Havertz, Christian Pulisic and Timo Werner, with Chelsea's profligacy in front of goal becoming a problem that they are still yet to solve.

Despite all of that, though, Tuchel is said to have had no plans to leave of his own accord because he felt so at home and saw himself as part of the future at Stamford Bridge.

There is strangely a chance for a fresh start back at Chelsea, with the squad wholly different to the one he left behind. He is still held in the same esteem there as the likes of Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte, and - despite his struggles in Bavaria - it would be viewed as a coup to once again have a manager who was considered an equal to Klopp and Pep Guardiola in his time in the Premier League.

The bar has been set so low at Stamford Bridge that Chelsea can only really get better and, with the fans back onside, the rejuvenated atmosphere around the club could breed success once again.

Even if that success is not immediate, their continued mediocrity would be considered far more palatable under Tuchel than Pochettino or any other appointment who had not yet endeared themselves to a fanbase that is notoriously hard to please.

If they can tolerate working with such a demanding head coach once again, this would be win-win for Boehly-Clearlake; a chance to right their wrong, unify the club and push to restore Chelsea to where they feel it belongs with an elite manager at the helm.