Frank Leboeuf has been one of the few Chelsea-centric pundits willing to stick his head above the parapet since day one and say that Graham Potter is a bad choice for Chelsea.
At first he got pelters from his ESPN colleagues for being harsh and not giving a talented English coach a chance, but as time has gone by, they’ve come round to his way of thinking.
The argument has now devolved from “why would you sack Potter?” to “well who would you replace him with?”
As you can see in his column for Simon Phillip’s Substack, Frank has an answer:
“I think Zidane would do a very good job. He’s proven that he has the credit, and inside the dressing room when Zidane comes in, you listen to him. He knows the job. He won the Champions League as a coach and as a player, he won the World Cup and so many other things,” the former Chelsea defender said.
“I think we can give credit to Luis Enrique as well. I’m not sure Jose Mourinho is the Mourinho he used to be and you cannot work with nostalgia in football. I’ve never really thought too much about who would be the best coach to replace Potter if he was sacked. We would need someone who knows the history and can motivate these players.”
We’re not sure if Zidane is the answer, but we can see why his countryman thinks he might be. For all of Zidane’s flaws, what he does bring to the table is the experience, gravitas and command of a dressing room that Potter is desperately lacking.