Six games into the new season, his former Seagulls side sit three points and two places above Chelsea in the table, despite vastly inferior resources to the Blues and any of the other teams around them. It’s not really about this small sample, though. What Potter was making at Brighton was much more in the making. The obvious product of his philosophy was their brand of playing football, but his work on the south coast has gone far beyond the tactical. Now, his success has proved enough for Chelsea owner Todd Boehly to decide the 47-year-old is a better fit to manage his new club than a man who led them to the Champions League just 15 months ago. That decision to pull the trigger just 100 days into his ownership will raise concern over the appointment of the likes of Potter, who finished 15th and 16th in his first two seasons at the Amex Stadium. “If I was Graham Potter I’d find it very hard to believe they’re going to do things differently,” Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher said as the Blues parted company with a sixth permanent manager in 10 years. But if Boehly’s reasoning was, as he has privately stated, to appoint a manager whose long-term vision can better align with the long-term vision, then sacking Thomas Tuchel, while still harsh, may turn out to be a smarter move. than it seemed then. The American billionaire deserves the benefit of the doubt. One of his other sports projects, the LA Dodgers baseball team, has had the same manager since 2015, and it’s not unusual for new owners to want their own man at the helm. “Ultimately, if you can align a good hiring process and identity with a good environment, you can build loyalty and drive.” That was Potter telling Sky Sports about how he sowed the seeds of his coaching career at Ostersunds, the Swedish minnows he took up from the fourth tier of European football. But it’s just as true to how Boehly wants to run one of the world’s biggest clubs. Since opening the door at the Amex in 2019, he has been instrumental in turning Brighton into one of the Premier League’s most cohesive units, while operating with a net spend of £30m in profits. The Seagulls have made a name for their tactical versatility and back-to-forward football, all the more impressive given the more down-to-earth style favored by his predecessor Chris Hughton. This comes in comparison to Tuchel’s Chelsea, who, even in their brightest moments, have always struggled to carve out a clear identity. Look at the path Leandro Trossard has traveled since joining the same summer as Potter. Signed as a winger, he has played as a number 10, false nine, central midfield and more recently as a full-back, and has impressed in each role. Would many other managers watch 6ft 6in central defender Dan Byrne in training and convert him to left wing-back? Pascal Gross, Steven Alzate, Joel Veltman, Alexis McAllister. The versatility of his team was almost unmatched across the division. It requires players with the ability to mold, but it should be a clear sign of a manager who understands his players’ strengths and can mold them to become better. While Tuchel can be credited with much of Rhys James’ development, he still creates a painful contrast with his ill-fated decision to deploy his most dangerous cross at right centre-back. “[Graham’s] The biggest strengths are how he plans the game and what he wants us to do,” Mac Allister told Sky Sports News this week. Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player Speaking in January 2021, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said he was a “big fan” of Brighton manager Graham Potter. “Tactically he is amazing, the coaching staff is very good, they always try to help us in every aspect. He is very important for us and I am very happy to work with him.” Brighton’s bank account supports his credentials. Marc Cucurella, who only signed last summer, was sold to his new club Chelsea last month for a £40m profit. Yves Bissouma has moved to Champions League Spurs, while Moses Caicedo is reportedly a January target for Liverpool. Potter undoubtedly makes players better and Chelsea’s signing of Kyle Macauley, a recruitment analyst who followed him from Ostersunds to the Amex, could prove another bonus. He is considered the mastermind behind the signing of Cucurella, as well as the club’s impressive signings from South America, including Caicedo. Tuchel’s frayed relationship with Chelsea’s new owners and playing staff contributed to his downfall and helped put the writing on the wall inside Cobham as they toyed with the idea of making a switch, but Potter’s calm temperament would serve him well better at Stamford Bridge. Even from his early days in Sweden, he has prioritized building his players and staff as people as much as footballers, and at Östersund he has developed a ‘culture academy’ to challenge them outside their normal roles – with whatever , from creating their own art exhibition to taking part in a Swan Lake ballet performance. “It was about being open to new things, removing the barriers that sometimes exist in a team, all the hierarchies and developing the players as people,” Potter told Sky Sports. “You can see people on a human level.” Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell probably won’t be learning to pirouette any time soon, but Potter’s philosophy remains the same and has been shown in his relationship with his players in his most recent jobs. “He’s a players’ coach,” former Swansea winger Nathan Dyer told Sky Sports News. “He’s a problem solver. Tactically, he’s incredible at making sure when you go on the pitch, everyone knows what they’re doing. What he’ll bring to Chelsea is just that. “He’s a very calm person and if he wants you to do something on the field, he takes responsibility if it goes wrong. He’s never there to throw anybody under the bus.” Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player Nathan Dyer reflects on his time under Graham Potter at Swansea, speaking highly of his former boss The issue of motivation also presents its biggest question mark, as it does with all managers without an elite-level club on their CV. Potter has accepted a top job for some time, but with a managerial CV consisting of Ostersunds, Swansea and Brighton, he is largely untested working with world-class players and the demands they bring on and off the pitch. He would not be the first talented manager to struggle to get the buy-in required from such an often hard-to-impress squad, and Chelsea’s long-standing managerial position owes almost as much to dressing room sentiment as Roman’s high Abramovich. requests. However, there are promising signs to be found in the respect he has built up with the likes of Adam Lallana, signed fresh from winning the Premier League with Liverpool in 2020, and Manchester United and Arsenal veteran Danny Welbeck. While some managers may struggle to adapt to the top-flight’s more possession-focused game, Brighton have done so since walking through the door – and in metrics such as passing, possession and shots on goal, they’ve been right up there with their rivals. top-6 of his new team last season. “Graham, in my experience with him, is a very deep thinker,” Lallana said earlier this year. “He and his staff work 12-hour days that you have to do, if you want to be the best, you can’t leave any stone unturned. “There are so many different dynamics in the team that you have to look at. You have a team of 25 players, each at a different stage of their career and life with different problems, but Graham and his team really do it. it covers all the bases.” Boehly’s hopes for Potter to build a new ethos in Chelsea’s academy have only limited youth history, although Ben White’s rise to the top and Robert Sanchez’s performances alone make a strong case for his record. Either way, the cream of the crop in west London will be on another level to what he was used to in Brighton, and his belief in process and common thinking can help him build that unity at Cobham. There are no certainties in football, much less risking a manager untried at the top level of elite football. But if anyone is ready to make the step up at a club like Chelsea, it’s Potter. Now, he just has to hope he is given the time to do so.
Chelsea’s upcoming matches
September 10: Fulham (A) – 12.30pm kick-off September 14: Red Bull Salzburg (H) – kick-off 20:00 September 18: Liverpool (H) – kick-off 16.30 Sunday 18 September 16:00 Start 16:30 October 1: Crystal Palace (A) – 3pm kick-off October 5: Milan (H) – kick-off 20:00
