COMMENT: It’s a mess. An absolute mess. And there’s one man who’s as big a victim in all this as the now former Chelsea manager, Graham Potter. Todd Boehly. No really, Todd Boehly has been let down as much as the man he’s just fired…
This isn’t a football decision. At least not one that has been considered. Studied. And the knee-jerk reaction would be to blame the owner. The American billionaire with no experience of football, let alone football at the very elite of the game. But that would be wrong. Yes, Boehly had the final say. But the Blues chairman took this decision on advice. And for this column, the advice received wasn’t the stuff of football men.
The decision to sack Potter – barely seven months into his post – was the call of Chelsea’s two new global directors, Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart. Both barely five months into the job, no less. And after their slapdash January market campaign left their manager complaining publicly of a “bloated squad”, the pair have now seen to it that Potter was sacked. The claims being that a “lack of progress” under Potter had become “intolerable”.
Suggestions which make as much sense in terms of football nous, as this entire first season of the Boehly era. Yes, a loss at home to Aston Villa was a setback. But this team under Potter also managed to defeat the then Bundesliga leaders, Borussia Dortmund, to reach the Champions League quarterfinals. And before Saturday night, Chelsea had taken seven points from a possible nine in the Premier League.
And that’s on paper. On the pitch, you could see a system developing. Patterns emerging. The new players were gradually finding their feet. The older ones, their belief. There was progress being made. And it was being achieved in the extraordinary circumstances of a completely thrown together, mish-mash of a squad. Unbalanced. Inexperienced. Take any descriptor and throw it at Chelsea’s dressing room and it’ll stick. This is what Potter was having to manage… and clearly he was doing so without the full support of his higher ups.
This is football. Real football. Not the stuff of Championship Manager and the scouting software Winstanley and Stewart have been raised on. We’ve said this before here, you cannot expect consistency from a newly-built team. The game doesn’t work like that. You’ll get results like Dortmund at the Bridge and Leicester at the King Power – and then everything will collapse as it did on Saturday. It’s football. It’s human nature. Winstanley and Stewart should know this. They should have been championing this to Boehly and fellow owner Behdad Eghbali, as those doubts were raised. The results and the consistency were in line with a group of talented players still getting used to eachother. It really shouldn’t have been such a difficult argument to make.
But the advice to Boehly was the opposite. And those making it need to bear greater scrutiny. As we say, Stewart didn’t get started until November. Given the grand title of ‘global technical director’, he had two years as technical director of AS Monaco before leaving for London. Winstanley, ahem, followed Potter from Brighton. That he’s been fingered as one of those to recommend Potter’s firing… well, what can you say? Business is business…?
In any case, as much as Potter and his staff have been questioned for their lack of experience at this level – and this column’s regulars know we’ve been among those critics – just where is the club going when the manager can be removed on the advice of their two ‘data experts’?
This isn’t Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara at AC Milan. Nor Oliver Kahn and Hasan Salihamidzic of Bayern Munich. It’s two guys with a data background. How would Maldini or Kahn react to the actions of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang last night? ‘Liking’ the announcement of Potter’s dismissal on Chelsea’s official news feed. Would he have even dared knowing Maldini or Kahn was watching? Can you expect any response from Chelsea’s management team to such gloating from one of their players? Don’t hold your breath…
But Auba’s actions are just a symptom. Potter’s sacking only affirming the belief that the place is rudderless. It lacks direction. Organisation. The transfer policy ad-hoc. The approach to the coaching staff just as confusing. And we must say, it’s becoming more and more clear that Boehly isn’t the main culprit.
Potter didn’t deserve this. Not for the circumstances he’d found himself in. And just as things were turning for the better. For the long-term plan we were sold on. For the patience urged from Chelsea’s top brass. Potter’s sacking – with no replacement identified – makes little sense.
So you feel for him, but also Boehly. The American is getting it in the neck today. But he’s as much a victim as his former manager. What can a novice do when his ‘experts’ offer advice like this?
