Graham Potter claims that he was "collateral damage" when Chelsea's new owners took a "sledgehammer" approach to rebuilding the club during the 2022/23 campaign.
The 49-year-old took the reins at Stamford Bridge in September 2022, having impressed at Brighton for three years prior, replacing German mastermind Thomas Tuchel with hopes of guiding the Blues back to Premier League greatness. However, Potter's tenure didn't quite go as planned, sent packing from west London just seven months later after failing to impress the board with his guidance.
Potter had overseen 31 games by the time he was dismissed from his role in April 2023, winning 12, drawing eight and losing 11 as Chelsea languished in 11th in the Premier League. However, the manager doesn't look at his time with the club with outrage, instead using the experience as a learning curve.
Speaking in a recent instalment of the High Performance podcast, Potter confessed: "I think you look at Chelsea now, they're in a better situation. It's an exciting, young squad that they've got." Reflecting on his own personal experiences at the club, he added: "But at the same time, I have to think that if you go in and you take a sledgehammer to a place and change it that quickly, sometimes there'll be collateral damage.
"And I think I was a bit of the collateral damage. And then I have to look at myself and what could I have done better? How could I have seen things better or acted differently?"
Todd Boehly and Clearlake completed a £4.25billion takeover of Chelsea in May 2022, buying the club from Roman Abramovich following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Despite being dismissed by the board, Potter has insisted that he still has a great relationship with the Chelsea brass to this day. When asked about if he saw eye-to-eye with the new owners, Potter shared: "I'd like to think that I've still got a decent relationship with them.
"They're smart guys, they're ambitious – they want the right thing for Chelsea. So I don't think for one second that they're doing anything because they want to ruin my football career. Football happens and these things happen. It's a combination of a lot of noise around and they were new to it all.
"I can only imagine, but when I spoke with Tony Bloom [at Brighton] – he's a chairman of 10 years – and he would say 'I look back at the start of my time, we made lots of mistakes. We all do when we're starting out doing something – you make mistakes, you're learning. It's not until you get under the bonnet of a football club that you realise what do I need to do here?'
"You go down one way and then all of a sudden that doesn't feel right, then you go down the other way and you have to work it out. The initial conversation was about building a culture, building an environment, creating pathways for younger players through the academy because in the past, Chelsea had sold a lot of players on from the academy and they wanted to use them in the first team.
"To have 16 top players competing on the pitch, supplemented with young players so that there's a possibility to sell but at the same time compete and win. It all sounded really positive and it sort of made sense and I think because their ambition was so strong they wanted to make some decisions themselves around recruitment."
Potter was let go after just seven months
Potter was let go after just seven months (Image: Getty Images)
Potter also admits that he took a back seat in terms of recruitment while giving his own personal advice to the board on bringing in players from a business perspective, however, he feels as though his advice was ignored which had an impact on performances within the team.
He added: "They did what they did and the consequences are we didn't win enough, and once you don't win enough, they have to make a decision. I've always said as a head coach if the owners think that the problem is you, the results aren't good enough and the solution is that you need to change the head coach – that's their prerogative and you have to accept that."
Bruno Saltor replaced Potter at Chelsea temporarily, before Mauricio Pochettino was announced as the side's new head coach in July 2023. The Argentine lasted the best part of a year, guiding Chelsea to a sixth-place Premier League finish before Enzo Maresca was appointed manager this summer.
Following an incredibly active summer transfer window, in which Chelsea brought in 11 fresh faces, the Blues are currently sitting pretty in third place after 13 games played with a record of seven wins, four draws and just two defeats. Maresca's side enjoyed a comfortable 3-0 win over Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge on Sunday – Nicolas Jackson, Enzo Fernandez and Cole Palmer each scoring – and face bottom side Southampton at St Mary's on Wednesday evening.
Potter, meanwhile, has not managed another club since parting ways with Chelsea last year. Although he was linked with the likes of West Ham and Leicester City, while he held talks over the Ajax job in the summer.
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Chelsea flag prior the UEFA Champions League Quarter Final Leg One match between Chelsea FC and Real Madrid at Stamford Bridge. (Photo by Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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