The investors and analysts who run and own Chelsea will be crunching the numbers with greater intensity than usual over the coming days and weeks.
The potential cost of dismissing Mauricio Pochettino will be weighed against an objective assessment of the Argentine’s troubled reign, as well as an analysis of whether a replacement could achieve more with the current squad.
Chelsea’s previous owner Roman Abramovich was largely governed by instinct – Carlo Ancelotti’s days were famously numbered within months of winning the double after the Russian took against his genial assistant, the late Ray Wilkins – but as befits a club owned by a private equity company the current regime are taking a more scientific approach.