Graham Potter applauds the Chelsea fans.
Graham Potter applauds the Chelsea fans.

“It’s still Chelsea Football Club” – Graham Potter details why he didn’t turn the Chelsea job down

Former Chelsea boss Graham Potter has been speaking about his time at the club and revealed why he didn’t turn the job down.

Potter was appointed as Thomas Tuchel’s successor in September 2022 after he left Brighton to sign a five year contract at Stamford Bridge.

The 49-year-old had a reputation as one of the brightest coaches in the game, but the move to Chelsea was a huge step up as he found out.

Potter reveals why he didn’t turn the Chelsea job down

Potter had done a brilliant job at Brighton but Chelsea are a different proposition all together and in fairness he had been parachuted into a mess.

The club had just been through the turmoil of the ownership change and there were a lot of players in the squad who didn’t want to be at the club either, whilst Potter also admitted the owners made some of the recruitment decisions themselves.

The Blues had a record breaking January window in 2023 as they signed a number of young players from abroad and Potter has spoken of how the instability that caused was hard to deal with.

Graham Potter as Chelsea manager. (Photo by Visionhaus/GettyImages)
Potter endured a difficult time in charge of Chelsea. (Photo by Visionhaus/GettyImages)

He started reasonably well and was unbeaten in first nine matches before suffering a heavy 4-1 defeat on his first return to Brighton and things never really recovered from then.

Results were poor and Chelsea found themselves in the bottom half of the table, although Potter did guide them to the last eight of the Champions League, but he was sacked in April 2023 with Frank Lampard taking interim charge for the remainder of the 2022/2023 campaign.

Potter has been reflecting on his time at Chelsea and the Englishman revealed why he didn’t turn the job down when offered.

“Maybe there’s a mistake in terms of, not giving it the proper thought, but at the end of the day, it’s still Chelsea Football Club,” he told The High Performance Podcast.

“It’s still how they were talking about it, I think you’ve seen it now to a certain extent. Young players, talented players, but competing at the top of the game, having the funds to compete at the top of the game, to win trophies, all that stuff.

“They spoke about culture, spoke about environment, spoke about bringing a lot of what I did at Brighton to Chelsea, but at a higher level.”

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