From top to bottom, Chelsea look like a completely different organisation. From an internal structure perspective, the corridors at Cobham and Stamford Bridge are now relatively bare, and there will have a been a point where Todd Boehly could look down his chain of command and be the closest person to the players.
Although some of the former coaching staff have been kept in place, Anthony Barry could once more be a brilliant person to keep on board due to his experience and knowledge of the staff and playing squad, but other than him, Chelsea are a new entity.
Boehly and the new owners have ripped up the old rug and laid the foundations for a glitzy decor to put in place ahead of the January transfer window. The drive to find the interior is happening right now as things are laid bare for Graham Potter to have a go at.
READ MORE: Every word Graham Potter said on Chelsea process, Boehly meeting, James, Jorginho, Gallagher
Even the squad itself has been stripped and partially restocked in preparation for a new manager to move on with. From the speed of the ownership change itself to the immediate impact - for better or for worse - of the new group in charge, to the removal of key board members and directors, to scanning the transfer market in unprecedented fashion, sacking and appointing a new manager within six months, it's been busy.
What makes this overhaul easier is to have familiar bodies in place. Whilst Tuchel did have his own setup of staff. He lost Petr Cech and Marina Granovskaia, key intermediaries and confidants, whilst at Stamford Bridge. Potter is seemingly being given the keys to some extent. The 47-year-old will have a say in the new director of football, he will be backed in the market, and he will - they say - he will be given time.
How best to do all of this other than to be surrounded by familiar faces and the best in the business. The backroom staff at Chelsea has a new recruitment analyst, taken from the south coast by Potter on his way to Surrey, and the partially behind a brilliant deal for Billy Gilmour alongside Brighton's other impressive transfers will be working at Chelsea instead.
The form of the Blues has dipped in recent weeks but Chelsea look set to add another piece to the jigsaw again coming from Brighton. The latest update regarding a possible departure from Brighton to Chelsea comes in the boardroom regarding Brighton's head of recruitment Paul Winstanley. He looks set to join Bruno Saltor, Kyle Macaulay, Ben Roberts, Bjorn Hamberg and Billy Reid, a group Potter brought with him from Brighton immediately after his appointment at Chelsea.
Kyle Macaulay, who has worked with Potter throughout his days at Ostersund, Swansea and Brighton, will become a key name for the Blues. Macaulay's appointment is part of the broader change at Chelsea, with Monaco's Laurence Stewart has been appointed technical director, Christopher Vivell, who was fired by RB Leipzig last month, is poised to join in a technical director-style role. Joe Shields is due to arrive as co-director of recruitment once he has seen out his gardening leave at Southampton.
Speaking at the Seagulls, Potter said of Macaulay: "One of my staff Kyle is in the recruitment department, and he acts as someone who knows me very well, and he has a lot of those conversations. For me, to have those conversations is time-consuming. He knows what we are trying to achieve. He helps everyone else in that department as a bridge and a link between me and the recruitment team.
"The recruitment has to like them, the data has to like them, and us coaching staff has to like them. The more info we have, the more knowledge we have. Then it needs to align with what they want to achieve and what the club wants to achieve."
Tuchel found pitfalls in this very area. The conversations the new owners wanted with him were too much for a man that enjoyed and worked on coaching and coaching alone. Potter, with his expertise in communication and leadership, will know the demands of working up the chain at Chelsea.
His recruitment-driven approach that has also seen Tariq Lamptey, Bobby Sanchez, Leandro Trossard and Pascal Gross all thrive at Brighton, not to mention Marc Cucurella, is now something that Boehly will want to implement at Stamford Bridge. In Macaulay, there might not be many better in the business for a project like this.
After speculatively joining Ostersund, Macaulay found a love for his new role after leaving his playing days behind at just 26. He said, "I've got that hunger as a coach or analyst, which I didn't have as a player by the time this opportunity came around.
"I'm involved a little bit with the training. In the day, there are various tasks… on the recruitment side, there are emails from agents [and] a lot of work watching the games, the teams we are about to play. Last year and this year, we have a contract with Prozone, who do the match analysis in various levels."
It has also been said that Macaulay and Potter are one and the same. Training ground Guru said, "Kyle would think how Graham thought and know exactly what he wanted in terms of player profiles because of all their time together.
"Paul [Winstanley, head of recruitment at Brighton] would oversee the wider department, which is quite data-driven, with Kyle looking at individual players. Kyle has a very analytical mind and is a good operator."
Potter and Macaulay will now have more resources available to them in a wider-reaching network. If they can scale up their success and progress, the £2m free paid to bring in the Brighton backroom staff could quickly look like a steal.
The Blues have one more tough fixture away against Newcastle before a six-week break due to the World Cup. After three losses to Brighton, Arsenal, and Manchester City in the last four fixtures, this could be the perfect time for Boehly and Potter to plan the future and get the staff recruitment setup all on the same page ahead of the January transfer window.
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