Potter pays the price as ruthless Chelsea maintains its new image
Although Chelsea’s new owners have moved quickly to try to make their mark on the team, Graham Potter’s position as manager of the Blues is still among the most insecure in football.
Potter’s tenure as manager lasted just seven months as a result of the Englishman falling to the 11th spot in the Premier League standings.
The club’s American ownership group expected a higher return after spending an additional £2.5 billion on players and over £500 million ($616 million) on new players in their first season in charge.
Two managers have already been fired by the group led by LA Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali of the private equity firm Clearlake Capital.
Despite his accomplishments on the field, including winning the Champions League in 2021, and off it, including his skillful handling of the challenges of last season when the club was under to sanctions because of the ownership of Roman Abramovich, Thomas Tuchel was fired in September. After Abramovich’s 19-year rule between 2003 and 2022, a hire-and-fire culture at Stamford Bridge is nothing new.
Even famous coaches like Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, and Antonio Conte, who won Premier League championships while leading Chelsea, were treated brutally by the Russian.
Chelsea fans were nonetheless spoiled by success during the Abramovich period with 19 major titles, despite the commotion in the dugout.
With the new administration, that has not been the case thus far.
Scattered-shot transmission technique
Chelsea lost to Manchester City in the first round of both the League and the FA Cup under Potter, and the team is now firmly established in the bottom half of the Premier League. Potter only managed to win 12 of his 31 matches in command.
Only winning the Champions League can save the season, but getting there will be challenging.
Later this month, the Blues will play Real Madrid, the current champions, in the quarterfinals, with the victor moving on to face either Manchester City or Bayern Munich in the semifinals.
Gary Neville, a former captain of Manchester United, compared Boehly’s approach to the transfer market to that of a fan playing the well-known video game “Football Manager.”
By smashing the British transfer record for Argentine World Cup winner Enzo Fernandez and outbidding Arsenal’s offer for Ukrainian winger Mykhailo Mudryk, the new administration doubled down in January.
However, the notion of a long-term project under Potter was scrapped as he became the most recent Chelsea manager to be fired due to a lack of an instant improvement in results.
AFP
