I’m just going off the timeline Romano, Law and others gave. Even if they did know, they couldn’t tell Gilmour. And Brighton has a DoF, so getting a talent like Gilmour in for 9m seems like a no brainer either way.
Gilmours sale was on deadline day, only 6 days prior to the firing. People are arguing whether we knew weeks ahead of the firing, or up to a month. The middle ground conclusion is that the final decision was made around the time of the Leeds defeat, considering Boehly and Tuchel did not speak after that until the firing.
Everyone conceded the decision was made prior to the last few fixtures and deadline day itself. Which means Boehly knew when he went to talk to Gilmour.
Boehly didn’t fire Tuchel and then go talking to people hoping to find a manager. Romano has Boehlys fixation set on Potter back during the Cucurella deal. That day after when people were trying to talk about Poch or Zidane … they very quickly gave up and admitted they were set on Potter. Brighton never made a single “Potter is the Brighton manager” statement, or even angry statements about Chelsea poaching their guy right at the beginning of the season, at least that I could find. Even with a buyout clause that is strangely cordial unless there was already an understanding in place.
Now… given the resources Chelsea has would Gilmour be still be Potters choice? I think it affects Gilmour more than Potter. The issue with Gilmour was Tuchel telling us we had all the midfield coverage we needed, and THEN telling us to sell Gilmour. Gilmour received a squad number and was part of our plans, and then suddenly was demanding to be sold because Tuchel decided to tell him he would never play him … right before the window closed. So not so much the sale, but the circumstances of the sale.
