I have reasd with interest the comments about Graham Potter being one of the best managers in the world. He has done an excellent job at Brighton yet I feel that his career would be ruined by going somewhere like Chelsea. Given that Chelsea's squad largely has experience of playing at far higher levels than Potter has managed at, I cannot see hm commanding much respect. He would be better off acheiving something at Brighton and get the England job as a reward. He deserves something far more sympathetic than trigger-happy Chelsea.
I have just read that Potter plans to take his "recruitment analyst" with him to Chelsea. By all accounts that could be a waste of time if the owner insists on having most of the say Brighton are lauded for their recruitment but I was thinking about their major "coups" signed under Potter - in terms of return of potential return (will probably miss some): Lamptey - signing a promising right back from the Chelsea academy is not exactly unique in terms of strategy. And they got such a good deal (1m, no buy back, minimal sell on) that it seemingly lead to them overplaying their hand and missing out when they tried to get the better Chelsea academy right back 18 months later. And we know where he ended up Cucurella - per the Athletic he was identified by our scouts but only marginally outside a pretty arbitrary transfer fee limit. Could have been ours if SR were in earlier Caicedo - definitely linked with Man United who apparently pulled out due to agent demands / shenanigans that for some reason Brighton put up with. Could well be some kind of "hidden" sell on to family / agents given how strange things sometimes are with south american players Now I am sure there are others that I don't know so much about. Just more a musing that they might not be the unique transfer geniuses they are sometimes painted as in the media. Which on the flip side (and positive for them) means that Potter taking this analyst might not impact them significantly I just thought it was interesting What seems undeniable about Potter though is his ability to improve players and set up a team to play as more than the sum of it's parts.
For Potter… he absolutely has to take this job. More money, CL experience. Even if it’s a horrific failure he can go back to Brighton or end up at a club like us or Leicester etc. For Chelsea.. just insane decision making. A reckless gamble for a club of their stature. Tuchel is a class manager. His pedigree compared to Potter’s is insane. I am truly astonished by this one.
Waiting for the David Squires verdict in the meantime. https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...n-the-great-var-and-refereeing-crisis-of-2022
I understand them getting rid and am surprised it didn't happen sooner. I think Roman would have sacked him had he stayed. Pedigree means nothing if the performances are boring and you aren't getting results. I am still slightly shocked by how he turned up to an FA Cup final against Leicester of all teams and set up with basically 8 defense minded outfield players. They played Leicester in a one off game and had Mason Mount as one of three attackers. And only tried to change that after going 1-0 down. It's amazing he lasted longer than that. Apparently the next Athletic article on Chelsea was going to be about how/why they are so boring to watch Also with the squad and funding available I'd suggest he should have been closer to the top 2 last season. They completely fell away in the second half. And I will consistently repeat how it is quite shocking that he couldn't set up a team to get the best out of Lukaku. Perhaps Lukaku is a busted flush at Premier League level but as far as I could see he didn't even try to play in a way that suited him. Is Potter the answer? Who knows. Probably not in the short term. Whether he gets past the short term is the key question
Pretty stupid to let him have the transfer window, spend £250m+ on new players and then sack him a couple of days later though.
He had input (most clearly with Auba) but I’d be surprised if they were “his” signings. Apparently many were “club” signings It would also explain the pursuit of Gordon despite him really not fitting into Tuchel’s standard formation I laughed quite a lot at all the chelsea fans online who were saying things like “if Tuchel wants him he must be good enough”. Clueless
Aubameyang seemed to be his signing. Don't see why he would be given no say on signings except for one. Would imagine he was involved in deciding on all the signings to some extent. If you are going to replace a manager you do it before the window, not literally a couple of days after it closes and you've spent more than any club ever has in one window.
At the end of the day Tuchel wasn't their appointment. Sure, Tuchel probably played a big part in getting Aubameyang in but he didn't want Gordon and the board went for him anyway. Boehly owns 20% of the LA Dodgers and they spend money like there's no tomorrow. Money is no issue for Chelsea. I get the impression they never wanted Tuchel as manager in the first place.
In which case sack him at the end of last season. That along with their transfer 'strategy' seems very scattergun, like they haven't got a clue what they are doing.
Hmm, still can't see it myself. He is too committed to the Brighton project and loves the pebble beach.
Those poor Brighton fans (at least on their forum) really have been knocked for a loop on this They seemed to legitimately think he would stay. Reading the development of their posts and threads is interesting. From confidently predicting he will stay to starting on saying “let me know when he turns them down” (or something to that effect) and “he will want to finish the project” (which appears to be a quote from someone) to now having “keep the faith”, “no manager is bigger than the club”, “a huge job with huge risks” and “what is the point” As said - we are used to it as saints fans but it kind of gets me that they thought they were immune. No one seems to be
I’m not sure I ever believed Poch would stay. I didn’t think as many players would go during that spell but I was under no illusion that Poch would go to Spurs.
The state of some of these replies in this thread : https://www.northstandchat.com/showthread.php?396456-Do-we-have-a-realistic-chance-of-getting-Poch Some saying they wouldn’t want him or even that he isn’t good enough? Someone actually having to ask “if no - explain why” early on I mean stranger things have happened but I just found this amusing
Loooool. I have to assume that they were in the football wilderness for so long that their fans don’t know ball
