Let's All Laugh At... Let's all laugh at Chelsea thread

[ItsBoris]

The sacking of Potter does point more than ever to the regime at Chelsea being at sixes and sevens. There really is no point appointing Potter if you haven't decided to take a longer term view and build a project for want of a better word and if you had decided that why change after six months? There was a report that Bohly actually thought Chelsea were guaranteed CL football, I was sceptical but you have to wonder. This is a panic move and may well have been prompted by Nagelsman coming onto the market, perhaps heightened by us being connected with him. Either way this is not the result of a well thought out plan.

I don't understand why this is some sort of commonly accepted viewpoint. There's zero evidence that he's capable of "building a project". Even Brighton are now doing much better without him.

Looking decent short term at a mid table club is basically irrelevant when it comes to managing a top club. And achieving long term success is even harder than being great in the short term. Eventually the spark between manager and players dies. With someone like Potter there's no spark to begin with and there never will be.

 

[Hakkz]

@Hakkz @markt @GMI @Keith Morris @WiganSpur

How do you feel about your disagree ratings on this post now??

As I said sept last year:

Still maintain that Potter is an excellent coach. I don't think he was ever made for Chelsea and it was always going to end in failure. I also strongly doubt he got to choose transfer targets at all.

 

[worcestersauce]

I don't understand why this is some sort of commonly accepted viewpoint. There's zero evidence that he's capable of "building a project". Even Brighton are now doing much better without him.

Looking decent short term at a mid table club is basically irrelevant when it comes to managing a top club. And achieving long term success is even harder than being great in the short term. Eventually the spark between manager and players dies. With someone like Potter there's no spark to begin with and there never will be.

Brighton was not a mid table club when he went there they scraped premier league survival by the skin of their teeth and was everybody's tip for the drop the next season. He was actually my prediction for the first manager sacking that season but he took hold of them and developed them, got them playing a new passing game and made them a rising mid table team, it's nonsense to say it was short term when they were always improving.
I said when he went to Chelsea the fans will have to change their expectations for the season as he wasn't going to deliver this season, it seems they didn't and Bohly bottled it.

 

[slartibartfast]

@Hakkz @markt @GMI @Keith Morris @WiganSpur

How do you feel about your disagree ratings on this post now??

As I said sept last year:

 

[Hakkz]

I don't understand why this is some sort of commonly accepted viewpoint. There's zero evidence that he's capable of "building a project". Even Brighton are now doing much better without him.

Looking decent short term at a mid table club is basically irrelevant when it comes to managing a top club. And achieving long term success is even harder than being great in the short term. Eventually the spark between manager and players dies. With someone like Potter there's no spark to begin with and there never will be.

Brighton was absolutely awful before Potter. Hughton's football was possibly the worst in the league. Potter and the board completely transformed the way they play football and de Zerbi is so far living off the structure that was built for him. Maybe he is better than Potter and will push on, but he was handed a lot of the things he get credit for now.

If you can't see the difference in Brighton pre and post Potter, then... Well.

 

[hughy]

Makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit to even think this, but we could do with a bit of Chelsea new manager/interim head coach bounce over the next 2-3 weeks. They play Liverpool, Brighton and United in the very near future.

 

[Frank Blank]

Not only that but Tuchel fell out with Boehly immediately. Tuchel and Nagelsmann are cut from a similar cloth.

Which begs the obvious question of why Bayern would take the risk of repeating their mistake? Again, if the stories out of Bayern are true.

 

[skiba]

Pretty awful few months for Potter and his rep. I think it was right that he got a crack at a bigger job and I wouldn't have been against him coming to us after Jose left. However the doubts over him were how long it took him to make an impact on Brighton (they only just survived in his first two seasons) and the lack of goals. Whilst he has been given a difficult situation at Chelsea these same weaknesses were prevalent in his short time at Chelsea and he will need to address them before getting another crack at a big job.

When Howe was linked I was always against him as I felt his Bournemouth team were poor defensively. He spent time with Simeone at Atletico to develop and learn and is now doing an excellent job at Newcastle who are defensively very strong. Potter needs to do something similar to iron out his weaknesses. He's a clever guy so wouldn't rule him out from making it again but he isn't there yet.

 

[wakefieldyid]

Potter got a 5-year deal valued at about £60M. That is "Never-have-to-work-again" kind of money.

You take your shot when you get that kind of offer.

Unless Potter did not have any representation when agreeing to the contract, if he wants to walk away from football now - or go back to Sweden - he can afford it.

I've just seen this specific quote in the Guardian... "Chelsea have not paid the £50m that was left on Potter’s five-year contract but he is understood to be due significant compensation." We'll probably never be told much he will actually receive, but it seems to suggest that his contract included various performance benchmarks that he 's failed to meet.

 

[EastUpperDK82]

So any new manager coming in at Chelsea... especially a manager like Nagelsmann or Enrique, will have their own clear ideas about style and the players they want to work with... how will they even be able to make a wishlist of new players with a squad of 143 players and Boehly who is acting like a Football Manager-owner. ??

Potter was more a coach at Chelsea... not a manager IMO... he almost had nothing to say on players coming in/out...

 

[ItsBoris]

Brighton was not a mid table club when he went there they scraped premier league survival by the skin of their teeth and was everybody's tip for the drop the next season. He was actually my prediction for the first manager sacking that season but he took hold of them and developed them, got them playing a new passing game and made them a rising mid table team, it's nonsense to say it was short term when they were always improving.

Brighton was absolutely awful before Potter. Hughton's football was possibly the worst in the league. Potter and the board completely transformed the way they play football and de Zerbi is so far living off the structure that was built for him. Maybe he is better than Potter and will push on, but he was handed a lot of the things he get credit for now.

If you can't see the difference in Brighton pre and post Potter, then...

Guys, looking slightly impressive at a club like Brighton means absolutely nothing when it comes to managing a team like Chelsea (or any team expected to finish in the top 4). If you want a manager who can elevate a club from 15th to 10th and call that a great achievement, there's a long laundry list to choose from. A basically endless list of people who did that and then failed at the higher level. Only a very small percent of those will be capable of matching the expectations of a top club, looking to compete for multiple titles in a season. It's a different level of pressure and expectation. That's why this outcome was very predictable from the outset.

Tuchel had proven himself as a top level manager already. I mean he won the fucking Champions league with chelsea already. To sack him and replace him with someone who's greatest achievement was finishing 9th with Brighton (after Hughton did the hard job of getting the team promoted I'd add) is just complete malpractice.

 

[markt]

Guys, looking slightly impressive at a club like Brighton means absolutely nothing when it comes to managing a team like Chelsea (or any team expected to finish in the top 4). If you want a manager who can elevate a club from 15th to 10th and call that a great achievement, there's a long laundry list to choose from. A basically endless list of people who did that and then failed at the higher level. Only a very small percent of those will be capable of matching the expectations of a top club, looking to compete for multiple titles in a season. It's a different level of pressure and expectation. That's why this outcome was very predictable from the outset.

Tuchel had proven himself as a top level manager already. I mean he won the fucking Champions league with chelsea already. To sack him and replace him with someone who's greatest achievement was finishing 9th with Brighton (after Hughton did the hard job of getting the team promoted I'd add) is just complete malpractice.

To be fair I do agree that Tuchel is well ahead of Potter as a manager. In fact very few managers in the world can justifiably top Tuchel.

I just don't think the whole Chelsea mess is all on Potter. There has been a lot of money splashed, but no real focus on what teams needed and looks like owner has gone football manager style ignoring the needs of both Tuchel and Potter.

His achievement at Brighton was not just the turnaround in league placing, but also his development of their style of play and development of the players there. Certainly would not call him a Nuno level appointment.

Either way, separate to the managerial debate, seeing Chelsea in 11th is entertaining. Sadly financial fair play will never be enforced properly, otherwise that too would be entertaining given the money they have thrown around and super long contracts they had to dish out to get round the ruling.

 

[Bluto Blutarsky]

development of the players there.

Has he really developed anyone who has gone on to a bigger team?

Maybe Trossard? Anyone else?

 

[mill]

Has he really developed anyone who has gone on to a bigger team?

Maybe Trossard? Anyone else?

Bissouma?

 

[spursfan77]

Enrique or Poch next up for them I reckon. They will want to go for the other end of the spectrum now.

 

[markt]

Has he really developed anyone who has gone on to a bigger team?

Maybe Trossard? Anyone else?

Is developing players just defined by them going to a bigger team?

I mean a few have (not all been successes Bissouma included yet), but in terms of relatively unknown or inexperienced players, under Potter a number of these have kicked on to a new level.

 

[nailsy]

Has he really developed anyone who has gone on to a bigger team?

Maybe Trossard? Anyone else?

Sideshow Bob to Chelsea.

Plus the others already mentioned.

 

[Japhet]

Over the next three years clubs will have to keep within a percentage of their revenue 90% then 80% and finally 70%. Currently, I believe, only one top flight club is under 70% guess which one.
That is really going to hit the top clubs, if it is policed properly.

What are the chances that the rules will be ignored resulting in long, protracted legal actions which lead to fines rather than bans. Meanwhile, Levy uses FFP guidelines as an excuse to do things on the cheap.

 

[worcestersauce]

What are the chances that the rules will be ignored resulting in long, protracted legal actions which lead to fines rather than bans. Meanwhile, Levy uses FFP guidelines as an excuse to do things on the cheap.

High I would guess.

 

[nailsy]

I don't understand why this is some sort of commonly accepted viewpoint. There's zero evidence that he's capable of "building a project". Even Brighton are now doing much better without him.

Looking decent short term at a mid table club is basically irrelevant when it comes to managing a top club. And achieving long term success is even harder than being great in the short term. Eventually the spark between manager and players dies. With someone like Potter there's no spark to begin with and there never will be.

Go back and look at what he did at Östersund. He took them from the 4th tier to the top flight. It included two successive promotions, winning a cup and beating Arsenal at the Emirates in a European game. All on a shoestring budget. That's building a project.

And Brighton aren't really doing much better than when he was in charge, although it looks like they have improved. They started the season well under Potter. They were 4th after six games when he left. They're scoring more than last season now, but they'd just scored five against Leicester before Potter left. This season isn't just down to De Zerbi, although he's clearly a very good manager. They finished ninth under Potter, their highest ever finish, they're currently sixth and two points above the team in ninth, although to be fair they do have two games in hand. So yes, they might have improved, but you can't ignore the work Potter did to get them to the position they were in when De Zerbi came in.