“They didn’t do that” - Ex-Chelsea manager Graham Potter shares warning he sent to Todd Boehly during 2023 January transfer window
Former Chelsea manager Graham Potter has revealed that he once asked for support from the club's owners but they failed to deliver. He claimed the management, led by co-owner Todd Boehly, were signing players without selling, which caused issues in the dressing room and training.
Speaking on The High Performance Podcast, Potter revealed telling the new owners there was no guarantee of success just because they were signing players. He believed they needed to keep the squad numbers in control and not expand exponentially as it would hurt the progress. He said:
“At the end of the day, you’re the owner. You’re the guy that’s responsible for the football club. If you want to do this, then my job is to support it. So I tried to do that with the owners, had the conversation around, ‘Look, if you do spend this money, you might have to overpay, there are no guarantees that it’s going to improve because the profile of the players you’re going to buy and you might have to get some players out’. They didn’t do that [get players out]."
In the end, Potter couldn't deliver for the Blues and was handed the sack.
Chelsea job is the hardest in the world, claims Graham Potter
Graham Potter joined Chelsea in September 2022, shortly after they sacked Thomas Tuchel. He admitted on The High Performance podcast that he knew what he was getting into but wanted to challenge himself. He said:
"I think Chelsea was the hardest job in football. It's not that I couldn't do it, but if you go in and you take a sledgehammer to a place and change it that quickly, sometimes it will collateral damage. The conditions were there for us to be successful and for us to be really challenging."
The former Brighton & Hove Albion manager admitted that he jumped into the decision to join the Blues but still believed that it was the right step. He said:
"Maybe there's a mistake in terms of, not giving it the proper thought, but at the end of the day, it's still Chelsea Football Club. It's still how they were talking about it, I think you've seen it now to certain extent. Young players, talented players, but competing at the top of the game, having the funds to compete at the top of the game, to win trophies, all that stuff."
Graham Potter lasted just seven months at Stamford Bridge before he was sacked. The Blues brought in Frank Lampard as the interim manager after the sacking.
