Graham Potter practically vanished from the public eye when Chelsea sacked him almost exactly 18 months ago (April 4, 2023), but on Monday night, our loquacious former head coach was back on our TV screens thanks to Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football.
Potter reportedly received an 18-month severance package from Chelsea when he was sacked for a job … “done”. Coincidence? Obviously not. (And yeah, I would have done the same, too, and collect £200k a week for doing nothing. What a life that would be!)
To be clear about my biases, I disliked Potter from the start; though I’d posit that I disliked him a fair bit less than most seemed to dislike him by the end.
Should I still take it personally then that he blames, at least in part, fan pressure and Chelsea’s (previous) “culture” of winning for his sack after barely six months in charge?
“The culture at Chelsea over a period of time has got them success so I respect that. I suppose you could feel that from the outside, the media and the supporters. Perhaps the mistake I made was that I thought with new ownership there would be a change of culture.
“But culture runs a lot deeper than that. Before the World Cup, we’d only lost three matches in the Premier League — one to Arsenal, who were top at the time, and to Newcastle and Brighton away — but the world was closing in and we were close to crisis.
“Perspective is not always easy to get, and at the time Chelsea were used to winning and competing. It was easy to say it must be the coach as he’s not used to playing at this level or worked at this level. Maybe he was the problem, and I could understand that as the results weren’t what they expected.”
In football just as in any professional sport, it’s almost always the coach who takes the fall. They’re the easiest part of the overall equation to change. It’s part of the job definition. Right or wrong, fair or unfair, regardless of “culture”. That’s just how it is. That’s how professional sport works.
When you add in that an entire Chelsea generation (or two) grew up in a culture built around the singular aim of winning, anything less was always going to be a tough sell — especially when it turned out to be a lot less. A lot.
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In fairness, the organization was (and in many ways remains) a mess. Perhaps any other coach would’ve gotten just as badly chewed up and spit out as Potter was after those six months. Perhaps given more time, Potter could’ve done at least a Pochettino … or at least better than interim-Lampard. Life at the top level is harsh and brutish, despite the wild monetary rewards that most of us can hardly imagine or grasp.
The owners ain’t gonna sack themselves and the fans are always right.
“After speaking to the owners, they were very ambitious. They wanted to challenge for trophies and use younger players. The chance to have that opportunity to work with younger players and build an environment. We did some things well.
“All of a sudden there was a bit of adjustment to be done while still trying to compete, the whole team was in a bit of flux. There was a lot of adjusting. It’s impossible to play everybody in every minute. Finding that stability was a bit of a struggle. You live and you learn. It was a very turbulent period in Chelsea’s history. I wish I had done better.”
-Graham Potter; source: Sky
Potter also used his appearance on Sky to make a not-so-subtle play for the Manchester United or England jobs, should they come available.
Good luck to him in whatever he does decide to do next in football.
