To the surprise of next to no one, it’s been confirmed that Chelsea have appointed Brighton manager Graham Potter as their new manager. Potter who of course memorably worked his way up from the Swedish fourth division to knock out Arsenal in the Europa League is a highly rated manager.
The Chelsea hierarchy rates him that highly, they have given the former Southampton left-back a five-year deal. That’s some show of faith, but the pessimistic side of me is saying, Graham Potter could be the English version of Andre Villas-Boas.
The former Tottenham and Porto boss was very highly rated when he joined the West London club, but when the job didn’t work out for AVB, his reputation took a hit. Thankfully for Villas-Boas, he was able to restore his managerial reputation.
Sports fans/football fans, let’s be clear. Potter joining Chelsea is a great appointment, but, yes there is a but, this is Chelsea. This is Chelsea who change managers more than I change my mobile phone (at one stage it was every year without fail).
This is the same Chelsea who wielded the axe on their Champions League-winning manager Thomas Tuchel who admirably led the team through covid-19 and the club’s ownership issues.
What thanks did the 49-year-old Tuchel get? Nothing! Former Brighton manager Graham Potter is a forward-thinking manager and his teams play nice attractive football.
Another admirable trait about him is that he makes do with what he has. Whereas other managers want to make any complaint they can, Potter? No, he just gets on with it.
In my own humble opinion, I can’t help but think this in part is one of the
reasons he’s been hired. Tuchel famously had differences in opinion with the new owners.
The potential signing of Ronaldo, which Thomas Tuchel didn’t want and maybe the signing of Marc Cucurella too. Other candidates for the job were Sporting Lisbon boss Ruben Amorim and Leicester’s Brendan Rodgers.
For the Chelsea board, hiring a manager who has won the Swedish FA Cup seems strange, but Potter has glowing endorsements in the game and is calm personified.
Rodgers is of a similar mould to Graham Potter but has been making noises about the lack of transfer activity that his club Leicester have made in this window in particular.
It can’t be proven, but I do argue that Todd Boehly wants a coach and not a manager. That means he would want a say on player transfers and have Graham Potter coach the team only.
Modern football does align with that (having a director of football and a coach to coach the team), but for me, the only problem is, I have a feeling Boehly will be not too dissimilar to predecessor Roman Abramovich.
Chelsea’s former Russian owner Abramovich was of course famous for hiring and firing managers. Zidane and Pochettino were also linked to the Stamford Bridge hot seat, but The Blues were always set on Potter.
Clearly, Sean Dyche must have ruled himself out of the running. O well, Chelsea’s loss. West Londoners Chelsea are one of the biggest clubs in world football, but the patience they have with their managers is a joke.
The five-year deal given to Graham Potter is hopefully a sign that Chelsea, just maybe changing all of that. I live in hope!
I got the opinion of our sports summariser Andy Rhodes on Chelsea’s new manager;
“ I Don’t think he should take the Chelsea job ,bad move on his part . He was doing a fantastic job at Brighton and established himself (there) . (It’s a) Massive gamble going to Chelsea with their history of sackings” .
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