Former Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has demanded that Spurs be retrospectively crowned Premier League champions for the 2016-17 season, arguing that Chelsea's title win was built on 'illegal' transfer activity.
Chelsea finished that season on 93 points under manager Antonio Conte, seven clear of Tottenham's 86, but the club has since admitted to breaking the rules by making more than £47 million in secret payments to unregistered agents and third parties to facilitate transfers. Chelsea, then owned by Roman Abramovich, were fined a record £10.75 million for the breaches.
David Luiz, Eden Hazard, Willian, Nemanja Matic, Ramires, Andre Schurrle and Samuel Eto'o were the seven signings at the centre of the wrongdoing, with the first four going on to play key roles in Conte's title-winning team.
Chelsea's points tally recalculated
Hazard, Willian, Luiz and Matic scored 26 goals between them during Chelsea's 2016-17 campaign. Strip those goals from the record and Chelsea would have finished the season on just 79 points, seven behind a Tottenham side that would have been champions instead.
The recalculation reworks seven Chelsea results across the season. It began on the opening weekend, when Hazard's goal helped Chelsea beat West Ham United 2-1; without it, the game finishes 1-1, costing Chelsea two points.
In December, Hazard and Willian both scored in a 3-1 win at Manchester City, a result that becomes a 1-1 draw without their goals, for another two-point swing. Willian's brace in a 4-2 win over Stoke City on New Year's Eve would instead have been a 2-2 draw, a further two points lost.
Seven results, fourteen points
On 31 January, David Luiz's free kick opened the scoring in a game Liverpool came back to draw 1-1; without it, Chelsea lose, costing them a point. Hazard struck again against West Ham on 6 March, turning what would have been a draw into a 2-1 win, and Willian's opener in a 2-1 win over Stoke on 18 March would otherwise have been a draw, each costing two more points.
The biggest single swing came on 5 April, when a Hazard double beat Manchester City 2-1 at Stamford Bridge. Without his goals, Chelsea lose that game and gain nothing, worth three points on their own.
Add up the seven matches and Chelsea finish 14 points worse off, dropping to 79 points with a goal difference of 26 rather than 52. That also drops them to third, behind a Manchester City side that would have finished on 82 points rather than 78 once the altered result at the Etihad Stadium and Stamford Bridge is factored in.
2016-17 table without Chelsea's 'illegal' goals
- 1. Tottenham - 86 points
- 2. Manchester City - 82 points
- 3. Chelsea - 79 points
- 4. Liverpool - 78 points
The exercise carries an obvious caveat: Chelsea would have fielded different players in the absence of the seven signings, and there is no way of knowing how those replacements, or the matches themselves, would have actually played out.
Pochettino: 'We deserve to be champions'
Pochettino, now manager of the United States national team, made his case on Tuesday. "We should win one title, one Premier League. We should have been awarded it. They were punished. They admitted it. The title should be for the team that was second," he said.
"We deserve to be champions that year. We didn't compete with the same rules. It's impossible if some clubs play with offside and others don't or one plays with VAR and another plays without VAR. For everyone the same rules and then the same capacity to create the best team."
He continued: "Maybe with the same rules we could've signed some players that would have made the team better or scored more goals. It's not me complaining, it's the truth."
"I have no doubt and I'm not scared to say the truth. The Chelsea fans will be upset with me but if Tottenham broke the rules, I'd say we don't deserve the title," Pochettino said. "I don't say they didn't play well or that Conte wasn't great. I don't want this message twisted. But if you broke the rules, then 'ciao', you need to give it to another team."
