Glen Johnson has revealed the transfer will regret as officially takes over at Stamford Bridge.
Pochettino after agreeing to become Chelsea’s sixth permanent manager in five years at the end of last season.
The former Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham manager takes over a club that finished just 12th in the last season, closer to the relegation zone than the places.
While Pochettino has only just joined Chelsea, the Blues have been busy in the early stages of the summer transfer window, with several high-profile players leaving Stamford Bridge.
Kai Havertz has joined Arsenal, Mateo Kovacic has moved to Manchester City and Mason Mount is closing in on a £65m transfer to Manchester United.
N’Golo Kante, Kalidou Koulibaly and Edouard Mendy have all completed moves away from Chelsea, with Hakim Ziyech and Christian Pulisic looking set to follow suit.
Ex-Chelsea defender Johnson reckons his former club could end up regretting selling Kovacic to Premier League champions Man City, describing the Croatian midfielder him as ‘one of the biggest losses of the summer’.
‘I think he’s going to be one of the biggest losses for Chelsea this summer,’ Johnson told . ‘They’ve got decent money for him, but they’ve sold him to a better side that he’s going to improve.
‘It was obviously a tough decision for Chelsea to sell him to City, but he’s going to thrive at Manchester City as he’s going to be surrounded by world-class players and he himself is a world-class player.
‘It’s very good business from Manchester City’s side. They have top quality players in all positions, so Kovacic doesn’t even need to be an all-round midfielder, he just needs to be a rock for them in midfield and then play it to the fellow world-class player that’s next to him.
‘This move will improve him even more as he doesn’t need to think about getting forward and scoring goals, he can just sit there and focus on that one role.
‘Ultimately these sales come down to the boss, which is Todd Boehly, but he will have those around him that are also decision makers.
‘However, for any negative decisions that have to be made, then Todd is going to take the bullet.
‘It will be embarrassing for Chelsea if the players they’ve sold improve at their Premier League rivals and it would be even more embarrassing if the players they’ve signed for big money fail to work out.’
Asked whether selling so many players to direct rivals could come back to bite Chelsea, Johnson added: ‘They’re certainly allowing some of their big names to go to their rivals.
‘Let’s face it, Chelsea are behind the top four at the moment and they’re selling some of their best players to those teams above them, but they do have to recoup a lot of the money they’ve spent and time will tell if they’re doing the right thing.’
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