Graham Potter's spell at Chelsea was short-lived
Graham Potter's spell at Chelsea was short-lived
Graham Potter has reflected on his rollercoaster tenure at Chelsea, suggesting he became "collateral damage" during the club's overhaul by new owners.
The ex-Brighton boss, who took over Stamford Bridge hot seat in September 2022, suffered the chop after a mere seven months. With 12 wins, eight draws, and 11 defeats under his belt, Potter watched his Chelsea side wallow in a disappointing 11th place in the league before facing the axe in April 2023.
Despite the rough patch, the 49-year-old doesn't harbour resentment, regarding the experience as a valuable lesson. On the High Performance podcast, Potter also opened up on what was expected of him at the club under the new regime.
"I think you look at Chelsea now, they're in a better situation. It's an exciting, young squad that they've got," he said. "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.
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"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 incursion into Ukraine. Despite being dismissed, Potter has insisted that he still has a solid relationship with the Chelsea hierarchy to this day.
"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," he added. "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.
Potter was let go after just seven months (
Image:
Getty Images)
"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."
Potter noted that Boehly wanted a mix of 16 top players competing on the pitch, supplemented with young players, allowing the club to sell players while competing and winning. However, Potter took a back seat in recruitment, instead offering advice to the board from a business perspective, which he feels was ignored, ultimately impacting the team's performances, reports Football London.
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."
Potter has no hard feelings toward the Chelsea board
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Image:
Getty Images)
Bruno Saltor stepped in as a temporary replacement for Potter at Chelsea, before Mauricio Pochettino was unveiled as the new head coach in July 2023. The Argentine's tenure lasted just shy of a year, steering Chelsea to a sixth-place finish in the Premier League before Enzo Maresca took over the reins this summer.
After an exceptionally busy summer transfer window that saw Chelsea welcome 11 new players, the Blues are currently sitting comfortably in third place after 13 matches with a record of seven victories, four draws and only two losses. Maresca's squad secured a 3-0 victory over Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge on Sunday and face bottom-of-the-table Southampton at St Mary's on Wednesday evening.
Potter, on the other hand, has not taken up another managerial role since his departure from Chelsea last year. He has been linked with clubs such as West Ham and Leicester City, and even held discussions about the Ajax job in the summer.
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