1 hour ago, enigma said:

So many people talking about Potter being mediocre is a bit ridiculous. He obviously isn't a bad manager, just maybe come into a club like Chelsea at a bad time. Again, 30+ players in the squad, coming in without pre-season, constant injuries to key players throughout the season so no settled side etc, it's not an ideal time to have come into a club like chelsea at the best of times, let alone with all the upheaval of the club the past 8 months or so.

I don't think many managers, regardless of their success, would have done that much better tbh. It's a bit different since January as we did strengthen a fair bit so we needed to see more improvement than we have, but we've also had injuries throughout the season. Missing Kante was big for us this season and he hasn't played at all under Potter this season until yesterday.

I know it's easy to put all the blame on the coach, but it's not simple when going through situations. People will point to the likes of De Zerbi or Brentford, Fulham etc, but they have zero pressure on them to succeed, we do as a big club. Arsenal are the same this season, zero pressure to achieve what they have, it helps massively. But again, I think he's a decent manager just come at the wrong time. Maybe there would never have been a good time for him to coach us, but I don't agree that he's all of a sudden a poor coach because of this season. 

Look at our CL campaign. Tuchel started off poorly in the CL, Potter came in and we went on an undefeated run, beating AC Milan (who are now quarter finalists) twice and making it look pretty easy. Going down at Dortmund at then beating Dortmund to advance in the next leg. If people are going to criticise the negatives about his coaching, at least give him credit for the positives we have had this season. 

'He obviously isn't a bad manager' - Is he any more qualified than Nuno was for the Tottenham job? 

Just for reference, Chelsea have less points than Nottingham Forest in 2023, despite signing the likes of Felix and Enzo. I genuinely don't understand how someone this competent can still be in a job

I remember someone on here using the term 'British FC Pottersexuals' - that's starting to seem more accurate by the day 😂

34 minutes ago, Tubbs Tattsyrup said:

Jim, just a hunch but would I be right in thinking that, politically, you sit to the left of centre ? Probably, I am thinking, very far to the left lol.

Wouldn't by the same token the "Potter Out" crew be right of centre, I'm thinking very far to the right?

Seriously, some people here....

I still back Potter. I don't back him because he is Graham Potter. I back him because I think we need someone to integrate 15 new young players to the side, create some sort of identity, create a culture where longevity is actually a value in the club. In these things I trust him. Showing constant results is something we can evaluate him by later.

People kneejerking here and in the media doesn't bother me. I just think they refer us still as Roman's Chelsea. We are something else now. Hopefully we can shake off some of the negative aspects of us as a club right away. 

I honestly think we can change the culture and be a top top club referred with clubs like Bayern and Real Madrid. We are just not there yet and we shouldn't be. 

2-3 years of constant growing in stability and we should be a lot closer.

People just aren't willing to forget Roman or stomach bad results. 

The resources we have compared to Arsenal for example and the material of young players is on different class. What we need is time and patience. 

I am willing to see a couple of sh*te seasons if we build towards that.

17 minutes ago, nonotnowjim said:

Well that depends on who would come in. Sacking for the sack of sacking, only to bring in a short term manager, then that is 2 steps back in my opinion.

I said on another thread that if they want to sack and continue the rebuild, then Nagelsmann being available is an interesting proposition that might allow the rebuild to continue to happen.

But the same caveats will apply to whoever comes in. The rebuild/reset will still be painful with lots of ups and downs. I dont believe that Nagelsmann sitting on the bench yesterday would have stopped Cucu with his brain fart, would have made Mcginns shot saveable or turned our attackers into lethal finishers.

So, in my mind it is not about who is on the bench. It is about the need to reset the culture of the club. Revert to short term thinking that might see us pick up wins and continue as we have been over the past x years. Or choose a manager to rebuild the foundations, which will be painful and long with whoever is in charge.

Without teaching anyone to suck eggs - having been involved in many corporate takeovers - 'change' is inevitable; but one thing is needed is a competent team leader to ensure the change over from one culture to the next is successful.  Yes it's painful, some employees buy in some don't, and it takes time to succeed. However, you don't go and sack the entire Senior management team within weeks of taking over or you will have no clue how things work.  Yes, you can gradually let the old regime go and slowly introduce the new culture. I have been involved in a couple of take overs here where Canadian companies were taken over by Americans, each one was a near disaster as they do have the tendency to be like a bull in a China shop, because they think they know best, so the way Boehly has acted is no surprise to some of us here in North America.

However, I don't think anyone on here believed that a change of direction and the culture of continually sacking managers could continue. While it may have been successful for the last 20 years, it was a roller coaster from one day to the next; managers in, managers out, none of them knew from one day to next whether they would be hanging around after a couple of losses.   Like I said earlier, the Management team being brought in has to be competent, to get the buy in of the employees, in this case the players, and that is my problem with appointing Potter. It was a disastrous appointment.  He had no experience working with a club of this size; extremely limited experience working with players of this class, a majority of which were winners; his CV would have been tossed aside at any of what you may consider World Class clubs, Real Madrid, Bayern, Barca to name but three; we are a World Class club, our trophy cabinet proves it.  Boehly said on Potters appointment that had great stats / metrics for him to be the one to lead our team through the transition...I think his stat man handed him the wrong sheet, because there is nothing on his resume that would suggest that he could take this mammoth of a club and move it forward and away from its previous culture.  

While many fans would look at the 30+ man squad and with all its talent, I'm sure it would not be easy for any manager to select 11 starters while keeping the other 20 on board.  However, after 6+ months he still can't pick a regular starting 11, he continually tinkers, continually makes bad choices, continually plays players out of position and for a majority of the time in his game management is untimely and appalling, especially when everyone in the crowd can see it except him it appears.  

Defensively we are shambles of the team we used to be, the midfield is a disaster, despite bringing in Enzo, because he has no one around him capable of playing at his level; maybe with Kante back we will hopefully see some improvement, but yesterday where was Kante playing? no idea. The forward line has been shocking since the day Costa left and no-one has fixed it, so while I don't put all this on Potter he has an abundance of choice of attacking players, more than the previous managers, yet he still hasn't made a difference and then benched and made an outcast of the only player who's career is scoring goals.   Now I keep hearing the pundits stating he had the same problem at Brighton, that his team couldn't score despite the number of chances created. It seems he's brought that mentality and trait to SW6.  Shame Boehly's stat man never included that in his dashboard.

With the amount of talent we have, we should never be in this position. While we don't have a God given right to be in the top 4 and fighting for trophies every season, spending £600 mill and being mid-table with 10 games left is truly an embarrassment, and for all this talent to be laid at the feet of Potter is stupidity on behalf of Boehly.  The other thing that irks me no end is the same drivel he dishes up at his post match press conferences and its becoming more laughable each week. 

He needs to go before he loses the dressing room. These players are winners and we are not winning. However, I doubt Boehly will fire him before the end of the season as there is nothing to play for in the league anyway and it's unlikely that we will get drawn into the relegation battle and it would cost the club a few mill I would imagine.   We are not expected to get past Real Madrid, although stranger things have happened, but I just can't see Carlo, a legend, being out coached by Potter somehow so I think its safe to say our season is done and dusted under Potter.

For me it's Potter out at the end of the season.  He should have gone to another club, bigger than Brighton before coming here, if that was his destiny, but to bring him in at the time Boehly did was misguided. 

1 hour ago, nonotnowjim said:

For the 500th time they are not excuses for Potter! I have consistently said he has not been good enough and that I am not convinced he is the answer for us!

My position is clear.

- I think the club has been broken for years. I think it was broken under the last 4-5 managers, and we have been going through a constant cycle of putting plasters over gaping wounds.

- In my opinion, the club needed a hard reset, both with the players and the culture. Moving away from the short term thinking of mend and make do. It looks like Todd and Co are trying to do that.

- I think this will take time to do. Rome wasnt built in a day. New Chelsea wont be built in 6 months, or probably even 12 months.

- I think anyone expecting such a change of direction to happen instantaneously, without ups and downs is unrealistic (at best) or delusional/stupid (at worst).

- I was bored of the football Sarri played. I was bored of the sh*t served up at the end of Franks time. I was bored sh*tless at the dirge served up at the end of Tuchels Reign. So far, I have been bored under potter - but over the past 5-6 games, have seen improvements in our chance creation and attacking intent. 

So...for the 501st time. I am not excusing Potter. He has been underwhelming and mostly poor both in the results he has delivered, the stylistic changes he has tried to implement and his public messaging. But .....he is the bloke chosen to oversee the hard reset that I believe we needed, so I will be patient and put up with the slog, which I believe it will be.

 

Just to be clear 502nd time....I agree....Potter not good enough. But patience is a virtue and I prefer to stick with the reset that I think we need, rather than revert to short term fixes.

 

 

Whilst I think you may be in for the long haul, I am not convinced the higher ups will see it the same.

Long term plan ir not, this is still a business venture and those backing the club will want to see incremental improvements for their investment. 

Potter's failing are what they are. But spending a third of the committed 10 year £1.75 billion investment in year one and experience a dramatic falling off of standards at considerable expense due to lack of CL and other domestic successes will raise eyebrows and a possible deep dive.

In doing that and seeing that Potter was paid 6 times his annual salary with nothing on his CV to warrant it, questions will be raised especially if, as reported, he is locked in for a major compensation package if we sack him.

Then looking at our transfer activity and attitude in the market and those behind the scenes will surely see that they have taken a model that has worked in one field and just assumed this will be scalable in this industry. 

I think Boehly might be in danger as well as Potter. Big companies don't climb down and exit quickly. But they do rebrand and reinvent themselves. 

It would not surprise me in the least to see Potter go, Boehly to step back and concentrate on the US enterprises, Clearlake take a much larger media presence as owners in terms of brand recognition with Eghbali the dominant force and perhaps a chief executive with a better handle on the football model.

Needs to be a well thought out decision. Can't stress enough how this next managerial appointment needs to be the right one. 

Not sure Nagelsmann is the answer either. 

Probably should throw my two pennies in on the right thread:

Reading the reports and listening to them quote the stats etc the players on the pitch didn't do too badly.

The problem is obviously Potr:

1) Not playing our best eleven - Cucurella ? - Kante on bench ?

2) Playing our most gifted players out of position - James CB ? RLC WB ?

3) Not giving new guys enough time to get comfortable - Mudryk ?

4) Making defensive substitutions when he should be going for it - Everton game ?

5) Making rotational substitutions to in an effort to keep everyone happy when he should leave things alone and let the boys see out the game etc.  - Everton game ?

 

Potr simply doesn't know how to manage the large Chelsea squad he's got.

I feel sorry for the players because it's like they're playing with their hands tied behind their backs and now they've lost confidence in front of goal.

And of course half the squad must know they're going in summer... so what does that do for everyone? Todd Boehly has to take some blame, inflating the squad hasn't made it easy for Potr but ultimately Potr needed to manage that situation and he hasn't - he's failed.

34 minutes ago, Valerie said:

Wouldn't by the same token the "Potter Out" crew be right of centre, I'm thinking very far to the right?

Seriously, some people here....

Yeah I'm not sure what politics has to do with with how sh*t Potter is lmao

1 hour ago, enigma said:

Emery is a good manager, but he's managed better clubs. He pretty much failed at Arsenal, whereas Arteta has succeeded. He took a pretty good Arsenal side and finished 5th. They had an in form, 20+ goal a season striker in Aubameyang too. He had a decent team at Arsenal. We don't even have a 20 goal a season striker which would make so much difference. There's always context to how successful a manager can be. You have to remember there's way less pressure on these smaller clubs you mention than at Chelsea. On top of that pressure we haven't had a consistent first 11 up until a few weeks ago, along with missing Kante (our most influential CM the last few seasons) all season. 

That's a little bit of a one eyed view on Emery to be fair. Conveniently overlooking the fact he won 3 consecutive Europa leagues with an average Sevilla punching above their wait. Even ignoring the obligatory Ligue 1 title with PSG he then did the same winning the Europa league with Villareal. Not a bad CV.

Brendan Rodgers has just become available.

Snap him up pronto.

19 minutes ago, evissy said:

I still back Potter. I don't back him because he is Graham Potter. I back him because I think we need someone to integrate 15 new young players to the side, create some sort of identity, create a culture where longevity is actually a value in the club. In these things I trust him. Showing constant results is something we can evaluate him by later.

People kneejerking here and in the media doesn't bother me. I just think they refer us still as Roman's Chelsea. We are something else now. Hopefully we can shake off some of the negative aspects of us as a club right away. 

I honestly think we can change the culture and be a top top club referred with clubs like Bayern and Real Madrid. We are just not there yet and we shouldn't be. 

2-3 years of constant growing in stability and we should be a lot closer.

People just aren't willing to forget Roman or stomach bad results. 

The resources we have compared to Arsenal for example and the material of young players is on different class. What we need is time and patience. 

I am willing to see a couple of sh*te seasons if we build towards that.

Kneejerking? He has 19 points in his last 19 league games, that would literally get us relegated over a whole season.

 

There's plenty of managers that can integrate young players. Amorim integrated loads with Sportong when he won their first league title in 19 years. If it wasn't for Tuchels first 6 games we'd genuinely be in a relegation scrap.

 

And for all of this 'integration', Mason Mount has been frozen out of the team and will most likely leave. Datro Fofana and Carney barely get minutes (not sure why we signed them), and the young players like Enzo, Badiashile and Fofana would be regulars under any manager.

 

Not every struggling manager turns into Arteta. I know you say you don't support Potter because he's Potter but that's what it sounds like. We're Chelsea fans, not Potter fans. We want the club to do well, if Potter can do that great but its looked the complete opposite ever since he came here. 

 

Every excuse under the sun has been made for Potter. 'He has injuries' 'The squads bad we need to sign players' 'He needs time to train the team' 'Look at Arteta' 'We were just as bad under Tuchel'. 

 

It's been 7 months, Potter's sh*t end of. Frank Lampard with no mangerial experience (and who went on to fail at Everton) outperformed him massively whilst on a transfer ban. 600m spent and we're 11th, and I don't think we break 45 points this season given our fixtures. I didn't want Potter in the first place but I didn't think we'd be this sh*te. I've never seen a manger this protected by some sections of the fanbase and the media ever in football.

3 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Brendan Rodgers has just become available.

Snap him up pronto.

F*ck I just lost my bet 😂 3rd time now betting on Potter to be the next manager sacked

Drogba1 has lost his latest "next managerial casualty" bet again then LOL

The bookies must be cleaning up on Potter 🙂 

18 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Brendan Rodgers has just become available.

Snap him up pronto.

Damn. Live breaking news  PL team playing in blue part company with their manager. Bloody Rodgers.

8 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Drogba1 has lost his latest "next managerial casualty" bet again then LOL

The bookies must be cleaning up on Potter 🙂 

If potters sacking gets announced tomorrow instead I'll cry 😂

21 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Brendan Rodgers has just become available.

Snap him up pronto.

He took leicester to 5th twice, that's better than Potter's entire career

 

As is david moyes taking west ham to 6th and everton to 4th. Both would be upgrades at this point 

5 hours ago, Jackbuchanan said:

"Xenophobic" 😂

Did he hurt your feelings with that mean comment? 🙄

Wouldn't shock me if he's just trying to get anyone who doesn't like Potter banned that one.

4 hours ago, nonotnowjim said:

Everyone is so impatient these days. What part of long term rebuild/project don't people get?

 

I thought you said Potter isn't the right man for the job? Make your mind up mate. 

He will get sacked at the end of the season. If he doesn't then it's obvious Todd doesn't know what he's doing and I'll be at the bridge with the "you don't know what you're doing Boehly" banner first game of the bridge next season. 

At this point it's almost ike a parody. I do wonder if there is a luckier man in football and I will bet my house on the fact that after his Chelsea tenure he will never go near any big team again as the world can see his deficiencies laid bare. 

TT just landed an even bigger job than Chelsea, go do same Graham, I dare you. 

41 minutes ago, Bebe1980 said:

Probably should throw my two pennies in on the right thread:

Reading the reports and listening to them quote the stats etc the players on the pitch didn't do too badly.

The problem is obviously Potr:

1) Not playing our best eleven - Cucurella ? - Kante on bench ?

2) Playing our most gifted players out of position - James CB ? RLC WB ?

3) Not giving new guys enough time to get comfortable - Mudryk ?

4) Making defensive substitutions when he should be going for it - Everton game ?

5) Making rotational substitutions to in an effort to keep everyone happy when he should leave things alone and let the boys see out the game etc.  - Everton game ?

 

Potr simply doesn't know how to manage the large Chelsea squad he's got.

I feel sorry for the players because it's like they're playing with their hands tied behind their backs and now they've lost confidence in front of goal.

And of course half the squad must know they're going in summer... so what does that do for everyone? Todd Boehly has to take some blame, inflating the squad hasn't made it easy for Potr but ultimately Potr needed to manage that situat and he hasn't - he's failed.

our most gifted players "RLC"...😭🙄

3 minutes ago, Victor90 said:

I thought you said Potter isn't the right man for the job? Make your mind up mate. 

Exactly. You say he's not the right man and in the same breath say he should be given time. 

Time for what. More damage? 

Just now, abister1 said:

Exactly. You say he's not the right man and in the same breath say he should be given time. 

Time for what. More damage? 

Exactly what I said about him the other day, he likes to say "I'm not actually a Potter supporter" as an insurance policy so he can say he was actually right all along when Potter gets the sack. 

Did nothing but slag Tuchel off for months, we're seeing far worse displays here than we saw under Tuchel and all this guy does is make excuses for him. Even gloated about Potter Outters after the Dortmund game.

I knew this was going to happen when we hired this bloke, well actually, he's worse than what I expected. If you support Potter, fair enough, but if you shat on Tuchel at the same time I just can't see the logic in that at all. 

25 minutes ago, Drogba1 said:

Kneejerking? He has 19 points in his last 19 league games, that would literally get us relegated over a whole season.

 

There's plenty of managers that can integrate young players. Amorim integrated loads with Sportong when he won their first league title in 19 years. If it wasn't for Tuchels first 6 games we'd genuinely be in a relegation scrap.

 

And for all of this 'integration', Mason Mount has been frozen out of the team and will most likely leave. Datro Fofana and Carney barely get minutes (not sure why we signed them), and the young players like Enzo, Badiashile and Fofana would be regulars under any manager.

 

Not every struggling manager turns into Arteta. I know you say you don't support Potter because he's Potter but that's what it sounds like. We're Chelsea fans, not Potter fans. We want the club to do well, if Potter can do that great but its looked the complete opposite ever since he came here. 

 

Every excuse under the sun has been made for Potter. 'He has injuries' 'The squads bad we need to sign players' 'He needs time to train the team' 'Look at Arteta' 'We were just as bad under Tuchel'. 

 

It's been 7 months, Potter's sh*t end of. Frank Lampard with no mangerial experience (and who went on to fail at Everton) outperformed him massively whilst on a transfer ban. 600m spent and we're 11th, and I don't think we break 45 points this season given our fixtures. I didn't want Potter in the first place but I didn't think we'd be this sh*te. I've never seen a manger this protected by some sections of the fanbase and the media ever in football.

Let's say we stuck with Tuchel. The club would have to bite their tongue with him the entire season and his behaviour. They couldn't follow their plans with him. That is no long term solution. Let's say we finished 7th under him. So slightly better than with Potter. I actuality being 14th or 7th on the table makes no difference.

600m spent and 11th argument doesn't hold water either. It is something you have picked up on media. Look at what we bought and look how big the squad is. If we bought Trossards instead of Mudryks we would signal we want top4 right away. We didn't. We went another route. There is no guarantees you bring in De Zerbi and he does any better. Absolutely none. And he smells like a project coach anyway.

I am not backing Potter the man or the coach but longevity. Judge him on results couple seasons on. Then we can talk about his talent.