Perhaps Graham Potter was on to something when he called it the hardest job in football. Everyone has seen Chelsea’s latest owners talk a good game, hire a slow‑build coach, spend a fortune and try to stay calm during the tough times. The idea, to be different from Roman Abramovich, was noble. In reality, given everything that has happened since Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali assumed control last summer, it is hard not to wonder whether Abramovich has been questioning why exactly he is the one accused of presiding over a ruthless culture, not least because the record shows that even the most demanding of Russian oligarchs never got through two managerial sackings in a single campaign.
It is not a comparison that frames Boehly and Eghbali in a good light as they step up their search for Potter’s replacement and consider the virtues of Julian Nagelsmann, Mauricio Pochettino, Luis Enrique and Rúben Amorim. Already the great disruptors stand accused of achieving little more than repeatedly getting in their own way and, having burned through two managers in seven chaotic months, there is one big challenge facing Chelsea’s board: convincing their next hire that all those promises about building a collaborative culture really did count for something.
They will have to understand if people are sceptical. Chelsea, 11th in the Premier League after spending almost £600m on signings since last summer, are in a bind. There has been a complete failure of judgment and a thread that began with the firing of Thomas Tuchel last September looks even more tangled after the departure of Potter, especially with Chelsea entrusting Tuesday night’s home game against Liverpool to Bruno Saltor, an interim head coach who looked more than a little overwhelmed when he stepped into the spotlight on Monday afternoon, keeping his answers short and focusing on nothing more than creating zero headlines during his first chat with the media.
Well, mission accomplished there. But what could Saltor say? The 42-year-old Spaniard followed Potter from Brighton to Chelsea and has never managed before. There is no grand plan here. Potter’s No 2, Billy Reid, has also departed, but the rest of the backroom team remain in place. Björn Hamberg and Ben Roberts are assisting and now we have Saltor, who is almost certain to remain in place until the end of the season, preparing to lead Chelsea into their Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid next week.
It is a mess. Chelsea want to learn from the events that followed Tuchel’s exit. They moved quickly after firing the German and wasted no time in taking Potter from Brighton, who received £21.5m in compensation. At least it was an intriguing idea. Boehly and Eghbali had not seen eye to eye with Tuchel. Potter, a much calmer personality, was regarded as a better fit for Chelsea’s new model, which would involve developing the team over time, improving young players and not placing too great an emphasis on results.
But Potter was not working in an easy environment. The fans did not take to the 47-year-old, whose lack of glamour worked against him, and the owners made things more complicated with some of their decisions.
Although there has been no fallout with Boehly and Eghbali, they may want to reflect on whether they unwittingly put obstacles in Potter’s way. Attention will linger on that wild spending spree in January. A host of new faces arrived, only one departed, Hakim Ziyech’s move to Paris‑Saint Germain collapsed at the last minute and it was up to Potter to make sense of it all once the window was shut.
It was a reminder that splashing the cash is no guarantee of success. Potter had even warned against bringing in too many players, pointing out that he did not need a bloated squad. Of late there has not been much space in the first-team dressing room. It is understood that there is not enough room for all the players to get changed in there at the same time.
Not enough thought went into whether Potter’s task was being made harder. The spending raised expectations but what was he given? Noni Madueke, Mykhailo Mudryk and Benoît Badiashile are young and need time to adjust to the Premier League. Yet Mudryk was signed for £88.5m. Chelsea know they overpaid for the Ukraine winger, who has left his family in a war-torn country, but the 22‑year‑old’s failure to settle inevitably heightened the pressure on Potter.
The manager usually carries the can. Yet Chelsea need to think about the consequences of their excess. Breaking the British transfer record for Enzo Fernández created excitement but was the Argentina midfielder worth £106.8m? Potter had his doubts. He saw a young talent with room to improve. Ultimately, though, it was not his call. He was not the one with the final say on transfers.
Yet he was the one who had to leave players out of his squad for the Champions League knockout stages. It was Potter who had to try to keep everyone happy; Potter who had to keep answering questions about Pierre‑Emerick Aubameyang, who has struggled for motivation since reluctantly leaving Barcelona last summer.
None of this is to argue that Potter did a good job. He made tactical errors and never looked capable of making the step up. Ultimately Chelsea needed an elite coach. But the owners have to look at themselves. Chelsea, who have just announced losses of £121m, are unlikely to be in Europe next season. The job, while lucrative, may not be as attractive as it first appears. It is up to Boehly and Eghbali to convince the next man that the mistakes of the past year will not be repeated.
