Graham Potter | turns down Ajax job

I like Potter and have for a while.

The club did him absolutely no favours though in how they navigated the summer, even down to sacking Tuchel just after the window closed and waiting for the season to start before appointing Potter.

Ive been criticised for saying the Boehly first summer was poor but I stand by it. This is what’s hampered Chelsea.

It was obvious there was no clear plan, strategy or structure and that’s down to Boehly and the owners. They should have had this nailed down when they bid not several months after the fact. The search for a DoF dragged and dragged, money was thrown at various targets without even seeing if they wanted to move to the club and after the season started they only realised Tuchel didn’t align with what they wanted to do long term.

I mean all of these things were avoidable to some degree. Risks could have been mitigated.

This isn’t to say the new owners won’t get it right, they are certainly happy to throw money around excessively, but we all know as United fans it takes much more than that.

Potter should be given time and Clearlake are responsible for things as they currently stand in my eyes.
 
Bluelion7 said:
Thing is, Roman was a notorious “player power” guy. You could go around the manager , or, if things weren’t going your way, help engineer the managers exit.

That won’t be the case with the new group for a few reasons: First, Boehly and the others won’t be starstruck by athletes (the unofficial term is “jock sniffer”). They regularly deal with a LOT bigger stars like Lebron James. For Roman, Chelsea was the only window to that world.
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Well, he already made that mistake most likely. There were reports he talked with many players before he sacked Tuchel, so he gave them too much power or at least that's what some of them think.
 
TheReligion said:
That’s quite a surprise. Especially given we played Forest the match before and they didn’t have a sniff
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Tbf Forest is a different animal at home, but still that is pretty much unacceptable. They literally bullied them the whole second half as well.
 
TheReligion said:
I like Potter and have for a while.

The club did him absolutely no favours though in how they navigated the summer, even down to sacking Tuchel just after the window closed and waiting for the season to start before appointing Potter.

Ive been criticised for saying the Boehly first summer was poor but I stand by it. This is what’s hampered Chelsea.

It was obvious there was no clear plan, strategy or structure and that’s down to Boehly and the owners. They should have had this nailed down when they bid not several months after the fact. The search for a DoF dragged and dragged, money was thrown at various targets without even seeing if they wanted to move to the club and after the season started they only realised Tuchel didn’t align with what they wanted to do long term.

I mean all of these things were avoidable to some degree. Risks could have been mitigated.

This isn’t to say the new owners won’t get it right, they are certainly happy to throw money around excessively, but we all know as United fans it takes much more than that.

Potter should be given time and Clearlake are responsible for things as they currently stand in my eyes.
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Yep, this is what I don’t understand about the owner having some kind of long term plan out for Potter.
It’s like we’re supposed to forget how poorly run their summer transfer window was but somehow their managerial decisions are separate from all of that.
 
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Lyng said:
I see. He is your Goldbridge?
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I don't really follow these "fanzone" personalities too much but I think Jennings is at least a real person (where "Mark Goldbridge" is a character played by some bloke from the midlands called Brent).

Neither are remotely interesting. I miss Sophie Rose.
 
duffer said:
A few posters said he'd be sacked before the end of the season. I offered a massive £10 that he wouldn't. Nobody took me up.
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I only just entered this thread again, but after watching the Forest game, I would take that bet. No issues.
 
Chelsea being out of both domestic cups by Jan 8th could easily happen. That would've been some bet in August.
 
Sandikan said:
How do you view your squad overall?

I know as footy fans we're usually mired in bias and exaggeration, but as a rival fan, I look at your squad and can't believe it.

It just seems to massively lack quality in most areas, and when a top form Reece James is out, just looks totally stale.
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You aren’t completely wrong. But the idea that the squad can’t function at all without Reece dominating is wrong.

On his return Reece was fairly pedestrian, just making good link up passes and running back to cover that channel on the right of our defense. BUT, even when pedestrian, he can do that. Dave no longer can. When you have a shield-like player in Zakaria slotted in you can negate that somewhat, but his timer runs out at about 52 minutes. Then you get the problem: Gallagher, Jorgihno and whoever else as your primary midfield cover in front of two players that no longer have the legs to cover for balls given away on breaks in our own half. It all starts to fall apart.

A telling sign yesterday: Silva was essentially coming forward to play midfield working out from the back. He had no confidence playing the ball to our midfield in our own half.

I’m not saying our squad doesn’t need a ton of work… but it needs at least one midfielder of the right profile, and it needs someone who can do even the basic things in Reece’s slot.

Putting someone younger, or faster in Silvas position wouldn’t help btw. We know this because Chalobah, Koulibaliy, and even Fofana had the same issues with Dave at RB and no shielding presence in midfield.

Tuchel is the gift that keeps on giving. His input, specifically, was that midfield wasn’t a priority and that we should keep Azpi as the backup to Reece … the two most disastrous decisions.
 
duffer said:
It's a bet then. £10 to me if he's manager for Chelsea last game of the season, £10 to you if he's not.
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Would have preferred July 1st, but will take that bet all the same!
 
FootballHQ said:
Chelsea being out of both domestic cups by Jan 8th could easily happen. That would've been some bet in August.
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Right now, with our fitness issues, being out of the domestic cups might be a godsend. The match congestion will be difficult for us to handle as is.
 
I like and rate Potter but he could be under big pressure after next few fixtures, unless Boehly is adamant to keep him and doesn't care about where they finish this season. Think Boehly already made few mistakes since the takover. He kept Tuchel for this season, bought him players, then sacked him as early as September, that always felt too early. Brings in Potter who now has to start in middle of the season, without preseason and summer transfer window to get players he wants, it all seems like a bad planning.

Chelsea look far away from top 4 now and in current state, they won't get top 4. But if they bring Enzo Fernandez, likes of James, Fofana and Kante come back, perhaps another 1-2 signings, that could improve them a lot. So I'm not writing Chelsea off but this current team you always feel they could drop points, especially away from home.
 
I'm properly perplexed by this whole situation tbh. Chelsea are portraying this long-term planned out vision, but my eyes are telling me it's an absolute mess.

I tend to agree with Neville when he talks about Chelsea and Boehly playing a real life Football Manager.

Getting a young coach and talented young players on long term deals sounds great, what happens when you're stuck with them? When they don't work out? When the team is playing bad?

They're taking massive risks and so far it's not happening for them.
 
justsomebloke said:
Would like to see you expound a little on that, you're usually knowledgeable and reasonable when it comes to Chelsea. Are supporters genuinely not worried about one win in seven, and being eighth on the table? I have a lot of respect for Potter and generally is of the patient persuasion when it comes to managers, but I'd have thought they would be, and find it hard to think they shouldn't be. Also, I really don't think Chelsea has looked very good at any point of his tenure (with the caveat that I haven't watched anywhere near everything).
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I don’t know anyone in real life that’s concerned about Potter. There’s plenty of discontent online but that’s online discourse for you, it feeds in negativity. Personally if you want instant results there are other managers out there that can provide that for you with more certainty. Going with a extremely talented but yet unproven manager at a top club should be definition mean he deserves time and support.

I’d prefer to properly commit to rebuilding the squad for the future which means playing Hall, Omari, Chukwemueka etc more instead of usual experienced players.
 
Delano said:
I'm properly perplexed by this whole situation tbh. Chelsea are portraying this long-term planned out vision, but my eyes are telling me it's an absolute mess.

I tend to agree with Neville when he talks about Chelsea and Boehly playing a real life Football Manager.

Getting a young coach and talented young players on long term deals sounds great, what happens when you're stuck with them? When they don't work out? When the team is playing bad?

They're taking massive risks and so far it's not happening for them.
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They'll just sack Potter and get in another manager for 18months.
Personally I'm glad they are slipping away. Never liked them
 
He will be given time I think, it's a bit of a mess there squad lots of nothing players really.

Tuchel actually was awful for them in the end, too pragmatic, built a hardworking squad with lots of running but almost no creativity or penetration. There's not risk taking it's all waiting to capitalise on others mistakes not forcing the issue.

They have been like that for while, and it's not like they even have the right players to fix that issue in the squad, not yet anyway.

Potter will get some time and as long as they don't go into freefall and stay around the top 6 maybe even stay in the top 4 fight he will probably survive and be judged more on next season when he has had transfer windows and time to implement his philosophy with the right players.
 
People who think he will stay are failing to consider two things…

1) Boelhy and his team actually have a coherent plan and have planned for any immediate loss of profits to invest in a long term solution.

2) There is no limit to how badly a manager can do as they are growing into a roll on a long term “journey”

The scattergun approach to recruitment leads me to believe that there is no 1) and the recent relegation form and the eye test both confirm that Potter is performing well below what would be the very minimum of expectation at this stage.

They were absolutely bossed by Forest in the last game and looked extremely disjointed. They looked very much like a team who weren’t really buying in to what he is selling.
 
Longshanks said:
He will be given time I think, it's a bit of a mess there squad lots of nothing players really.

Tuchel actually was awful for them in the end, too pragmatic, built a hardworking squad with lots of running but almost no creativity or penetration. There's not risk taking it's all waiting to capitalise on others mistakes not forcing the issue.

They have been like that for while, and it's not like they even have the right players to fix that issue in the squad, not yet anyway.

Potter will get some time and as long as they don't go into freefall and stay around the top 6 maybe even stay in the top 4 fight he will probably survive and be judged more on next season when he has had transfer windows and time to implement his philosophy with the right players.
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This bit is painfully true.
 
For me, Potter has a free hit this season.

January and summer transfer window, plenty of time to work with the players and implement his own style.

Next season really is his moment as Chelsea manager.
 
MayosNoun said:
For me, Potter has a free hit this season.

January and summer transfer window, plenty of time to work with the players and implement his own style.

Next season really is his moment as Chelsea manager.
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Same for me.
 
MayosNoun said:
For me, Potter has a free hit this season.

January and summer transfer window, plenty of time to work with the players and implement his own style.

Next season really is his moment as Chelsea manager.
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You really think you’ll be able to muscle your way back into the top 4 next season if you miss out this season?

A manager with zero experience of mixing it in the top 4 with the teams and managers that will finish there, all of which will strengthen in the summer also, from a stronger vantage point of offering CL football.

You’ve only got to look at United’s last 10 years to realise it’s a very, very dangerous game to back a manager who just simply doesn’t have the experience at this level.
 
It will certainly be refreshing to see Chelsea being patient with a manager for once.
 
Who cares what they do. Chelsea are finished as a top club, anyway, the forced sale sealed their fate. They'll slowly drift into irrelevance and they won't be missed.
 
Hansi Fick said:
Who cares what they do. Chelsea are finished as a top club, anyway, the forced sale sealed their fate. They'll slowly drift into irrelevance and they won't be missed.
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Aw bless you. Your city. Your stadium. Our trophy. Still stings huh?
 
Lyng said:
Nagelsmann was actual who I thought of, and Hansi Flick perhaps.
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Wasn't Flick already confirmed to be staying with the Germany NT till the next Euros?

Hansi Fick said:
Who cares what they do. Chelsea are finished as a top club, anyway, the forced sale sealed their fate. They'll slowly drift into irrelevance and they won't be missed.
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Ah, a Bayern fan still hurt over 2012?

"Unsere stadt, unser stadion, unser pokal" :drool:

EDIT: Ah shit, @WeePat beat me to it.
 
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