Chelsea legend Ashley Cole has reacted to the dismissal of Mauricio Pochettino as Chelsea manager.

Pochettino’s dismissal was seen as a shock after a promising end to the season, in which Chelsea went on a run of five straight victories.

Ashley Cole feels Chelsea should have kept faith with Pochettino, especially after the positive signs from the backend of the season.

“I’m a little bit sad and disappointed, to be fair, because I see all the hard work that he put into the club, put into the team,” the former Chelsea left-back told SNTV.

“You saw the change of fortunes in terms of their results, they really came good.

“If you would have asked me at the start of the season, ‘Where would they place in the league?’, in my personal opinion, I would have taken sixth place.

“I think he’s done a fantastic job, he had a young group to work with which, again, is really, really hard to sustain momentum and consistency.

“Okay, the front-end of the season wasn’t as he would have planned but if you look at the end result at the end of the season and, for me, he’s done a fantastic job so I’m a little bit sad, to be honest.”

According to Cole, working with young players takes time to build consistency and momentum, and Pochettino’s young Chelsea team were already beginning to build that.

“I’m not that close to it to understand the conversations that go on behind closed doors, I don’t understand the ethos and philosophy of what direction the club want. That’s the owners,” he added.

“But again, as a fan and me watching from the sidelines, yeah, I really enjoyed watching a Poch team.

“I enjoyed watching a young, enthusiastic players trying to come together and build an environment and culture that you’re proud of and towards the back-end of the season, I got to see that. From the outside, I enjoyed watching that team.”