Chelsea boss Graham Potter has revealed that some of the experienced members of his squad were unhappy with the side's pre-season for the 2022/23 campaign. The comments echo that of former head coach Thomas Tuchel, who was disgruntled with the organisation at the time.
The build up to the campaign came with problems as the takeover of the club left uncertainty over the football operations for some time. The squad then went on their tour of the US, though performances weren't ideal and included a thrashing at the hands of rivals Arsenal.
While the training is built with bringing players up to full fitness for the season, Tuchel couldn't guarantee that they would be, underlining the difficulties of the time. "It's quite a challenge after change already the third time the location," he told Chelsea's in-house media on the changes across the USA.
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"A lot of travelling, another time zone, a totally different feeling of temperature, huge humidity, so very demanding for first training and the players are struggling with the heat. We give maybe more time and space to drink – more break – but we can’t hide from the fact we’re in pre-season and we have to, somehow, put kilometres into the legs. From this point, we don’t adapt."
It was an issue that got the Blues off to a difficult start to the season, one that has been full of difficult changes both on and off the pitch. Since that discussion, plenty has happened, but new boss Potter has revealed that some of his experienced members of the squad expressed difficulties with the pre-season.
The head coach spoke to the media and when asked if he needs time to implement his methods, he said: "It's really tough. My quote a few weeks ago is that it's the toughest job in football,, and there are reasons for that. Speaking to a few of the experienced guys, they said it was the worst pre-season they've had.
"Organisationally, the tour didn't work as well as they'd like. I wasn't there so I can't say. We thought we made progress, but the first half against Southampton was below par. The sky can fall. These are some of the facts. Inconvenient facts, but that's the situation."
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