Chelsea management reveals five reasons why Graham Potter won't be sacked

‘The five reasons’ why Graham Potter remains unsackable at Chelsea — report

Chelsea have an entirely underserved day off on (Monday), but when we reconvene tomorrow at Cobham, Graham Potter will be there to lead training as usual. And he will be there the day after, and the day after, and the day after that. In fact, he will there this whole season, and then probably for a fair bit longer after that. He may be here forever. You see, Graham Potter remains entirely unsackable.

Among the many things Chelsea’s new owners had promised was better communication, representation, and openness with fans. That hasn’t exactly happened yet, so no, this stance hasn’t been communicated directly. Instead, we just get the usual dissemination of information, namely by way of preferred media sources.

So, here’s Matt Law in the Telegraph with the “exclusive” five reasons why Graham Potter hasn’t been sacked, and will not be sacked until well into next season at the earliest.

“Behind the scenes”: Potter’s doing good work on the training ground, as evidenced first-hand by those noted football experts, Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali, who have “watched personally [on] a number of occasions”. Potter’s also “collaborating” nicely (with the board, analytics, etc.), unlike that surly Tommy. Considering that much of that has been custom-crafted around Potter, I would certainly hope so!

“Anger management”: “Potter’s style suits the approach of the owners far better, according to those with inside knowledge” — a.k.a. they like that G-Money’s an introvert in the streets but an extrovert in the sheets. “Senior sources insist there have been a number of instances of the 47-year-old becoming upset and having tough conversations with players in the dressing room and during individual meetings. Potter is described as being intense at Cobham and there are no fears over his mentality or concerns that he is being swallowed up by the job.” — when everyone has to insist on how tough you are, you know you’re super duper tough.

“Bravery”: Brave Sir Potter took the risk to join mid-season (you know, that massive risk of his bank account overflowing) and “there remains a feeling inside Stamford Bridge that he at least deserves one pre-season to properly work with a squad and start a season as Chelsea manager, rather than paying the price for problems that he inherited”. Never mind that we seem to getting worse the longer he gets to work with the squad. Also, problems he inherited? You mean an easy top-four finish and three cup finals? The expectation of a fanbase that he must win a few games or at least look like a cohesive team? Most patient and supportive owners ever? A squad (or least most of them) apparently still willing to listen to him? So many problems!

“Pain game”: The owners expected the rebuild to take “one year and three transfer windows” with painful “ups and downs”. Thankfully, Potter has taken the “ups” out of it, so now it’s just a nice flatline, eh? There is an admission that the summer window with Tuchel still in charge “created as many problems as solutions” but “the current view at Chelsea is the club, together with Potter, must fight and work their way through this difficult period”. At least the owners have seemingly acknowledged the error of some of their ad hoc decision-making.

“City’s example”: This is the usual waffle about the rare exceptions in sports and football where a coach has achieved sustained success. Pep Guardiola didn’t win anything in his first year at Manchester City ... but of course did finish third easily. That was also the first ever season as manager for him without a trophy. Another name who recently has been brought up in such an argument is Dave Roberts at the LA Dodgers, who was basically plucked out of nowhere to lead the team for the last seven years — all seven of which saw him make the playoffs, reach the World Series three times, and win it once. “Boehly and Eghbali do not believe sustainable success will come from changing the manager or head coach every six months.” A long-term contract is not the only required for sustained success however, and surely we must recognize this as well.

So yeah, unsackable. And don’t expect that to change anytime soon.

“I know my qualities. I know what I have done in my career, and I understand when results do not go your way you are open to criticism, and that is fair.”

-Graham Potter; source: Chelsea FC

I guess we better hope we get to 40 points at least.