Chelsea fans will not have too much good things to say about West Ham United manager Graham Potter.
Potter‘s time in the Stamford Bridge dugout as Chelsea boss was a massive failure. He was sacked before the end of the 2022/23 season, with the Blues sitting 11th in the table at the time.
His spell at Brighton & Hove Albion, though, was much better. And one footballer who has played for both the Seagulls and Chelsea has been able to find some positive words about the 49-year-old.
Marc Cucurella has spoken about Potter, too, revealing that he spent a lot of time in his office when he was Chelsea manager.
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Photo by Charlotte Wilson/Offside/Offside via Getty Images
Graham Potter’s influence on Billy Gilmour
Billy Gilmour left Chelsea for Brighton in 2022, but the midfielder only got to play one game under Potter before his move to Stamford Bridge.
Nevertheless, Gilmour still managed to learn a lot, with the 23-year-old stating that Potter changed his outlook on football.
In an interview with The Athletic, Gilmour said: “Graham Potter and Roberto De Zerbi changed how I played, how I saw football.
“At Chelsea, I was always in and out, not finishing games. In my first season at Brighton, I was doing the same. But in that second one, because we were in Europe as well, I was playing lots of games, I was fit and confident. I was at my very best.”
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The Scotsman is now at Napoli and could help them to win the Serie A title this season. Antonio Conte’s side are just two points behind league leaders Inter Milan.
Gilmour was part of Chelsea’s Champions League-winning team in 2021 but has not won any silverware since then, so he will be desperate to finish this Serie A campaign in first.
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Photo by Franco Romano/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Graham Potter on his Chelsea sacking
Gilmour’s final ever game for Chelsea came in a 1-0 defeat to Arsenal in May 2021. As for Potter’s, his was a 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa a couple of years after.
The former Brighton boss thinks Chelsea’s owners felt that they had no choice but to dismiss him at that point.
When Potter discussed his final match in charge of Chelsea last year, he said: “We lost to Aston Villa. That was the game we lost, it was our final game. My assistant’s friends with Unai [Emery] and Unai was like, ‘You played well, pushed us back and you didn’t deserve to lose’.
“But I think by that point, the owners, the pressure was that much and the noise was that strong that they felt that they had to do something.”
Potter was not at Stamford Bridge for long, but with the Blues being in the bottom half of the table in April, something had to change.