Graham Potter was the manager of Chelsea for a short 31 games. He was let go by their owner Todd Boehly who, months earlier, gave Thomas Tuchel only 100 days before firing him too – despite the fact that Tuchel had already won them the Champions League!
The new owner of the team, Boehly, has made the same decision as his predecessor in firing Potter after only playing 31 games. This means that anyone expecting him to be more gentle and compassionate than Abramovich was wrong.
Since the summer, the owner of Chelsea has spent a lot of money on buying different players. This has caused a lot of unstableness at Chelsea and recently the manager was suddenly fired even though the club had given him a five-year contract and promised to be patient with him. This shows that there is no clear plan or direction for the team.
When the statement about his leaving was released, it said something strange: “Graham has agreed to collaborate with the club to facilitate a smooth transition”. What does that mean? That he’s going away?
The 2-0 home loss in Saturday’s game against Aston Villa showed this was true; it was Graham Potter’s 11th defeat out of 31 games. This put Chelsea in 11th place in the Premier League standings and 12 points away from getting a top-four spot, which is what they wanted.
The best moment in Potter’s brief time in charge of Chelsea was taking them to a Champions League quarterfinal game against Real Madrid. We don’t know yet who will be coaching Chelsea for the match, but Julian Nagelsmann from Bayern Munich and Mauricio Pochettino from Tottenham are both possibilities.
Who will Chelsea pick as their new coach? Right now, Bruno Saltor will be in charge for the next match against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge. Recently, a lot of people were mad at Potter after they lost a game against Villa.
Lots of people supporting Chelsea Football Club weren’t sure if they wanted a former Brighton manager as their team’s coach. But the work he did at Brighton was so good that many people thought he should be next in line to manage the England football team when Gareth Southgate steps down.
Many Chelsea fans were not okay with their coach being swapped out for a man who had only taken Brighton to 9th place in last season’s rankings, despite his notoriety growing. This situation was understandable since this highly-revered coach had achieved the Champions League victory with Chelsea.
The new coach probably didn’t expect how much fuss it would cause–it was hard to turn down the offer when you consider Chelsea’s reputable history and how much money they have.
He might not say it but he would have wished for calmer times instead of the distress that eventually followed him to Chelsea.
After losing 1-0 vs the last placed team, Southampton, Potter stated: “You should expect criticism and that’s totally normal. People here always remain positive and respectable. It is obviously difficult because this affects your family life and mental health; it’s challenging in many ways.”
The owners of the team wanted quick success and they were ready to invest a lot. With new players coming in at surprisingly high prices, it made people wonder if these purchases were requested by the manager and how he was going to make use of them. In just January 2021, Chelsea spent £289 million on players and another £270 million during the summer, but both their managers didn’t stay long enough to see if this huge investment would be beneficial.
In January, the club spent a lot of money on two players. They bought midfielder Enzo Fernandez from Argentina for an incredible record of £107m and they also purchased Mykhailo Mudryk, a Ukrainian forward from Shakhtar Donetsk, for £89m.
This was really different to the situation Potter had been used to while working at Brighton. He previously worked with a small team and now had to figure out how to manage all these new people he brought in.
When expensive new players were signed, people had high expectations for Chelsea to improve. Unfortunately, their coach, Potter, wasn’t able to make a successful plan quickly enough and he was replaced. People who sympathize with him understand that it’s difficult to create a team from so many new faces in such a short time.
José Potter sometimes struggled to manage Chelsea, a big and chaotic team that always seems to do well despite all its problems. Potter’s skills with making changes and finding tactical solutions, which served him well at Brighton, also seemed to disappear.
Chelsea’s team did not look very good against Villa, with Marc Cucurella and Reece James playing as the three full-backs. Mudryk was unsuccessful in his attempt to make things better and it seemed like the manager was trying unsuccessfully to find solutions.
At first, it seemed like Frank Potter was doing a great job keeping the fans happy since they had three wins out of four games, including beating Borussia Dortmund 2-0 in the Champions League. But after losing to Aston Villa after an international break, everything changed and it put more pressure on Frank Potter.
Making the Right Decision
Once again, the spotlight was on Boehly as the situation got tough. Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley took the lead while making decisions, with support from owners at Clearlake Capital of Chelsea. To those who don’t really know anything about this, it appears that Boehly has no real plan in mind and is willing to waste a lot of money on buying players without figuring out how they will fit into the team.
Arsenal, a long-time group who wanted to buy Mudryk, ended up getting someone else instead. They chose Leandro Trossard who cost them £21m and was also previously coached by their new manager, Potter.
Trossard has been amazing in helping Arsenal go after the title while on the other hand, Mudryk seems unfit and isn’t performing well right now.
Potter will still be seen as a good manager by many people, who think he was given a hard task that was almost impossible to do. But his short-lived attempt at this high profile job will leave him with some damage to his reputation. Boehly, on the other hand, has to prove that he can lead a Premier League club and do it successfully.
It looks like Mr. Potter has some big decisions to make, and he needs to start making the right ones now!
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