Sky
Sports News chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol says former Bayern Munich head
coach Julian Nagelsmann is the front-runner to become the new Chelsea
manager after Graham Potter was sacked on Sunday night.
Potter's departure follows the Blues' 2-0 loss at home to Aston Villa, which
saw them slip into the bottom half of the Premier League table. Sky Germany
claim it is 50:50 as to whether Nagelsmann would be prepared to move
quickly.
Bruno Saltor will take charge as interim head coach, with Chelsea set to
host Liverpool at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night live on Sky Sports before
travelling to Wolves next weekend.
A club statement read: "Chelsea FC has announced that Graham Potter has
departed the club. Graham has agreed to collaborate with the club to
facilitate a smooth transition.
"In his time with the club, Graham has taken us to the quarter-final of the
Champions League, where we will face Real Madrid. Chelsea would like to
thank Graham for all his efforts and contribution and wish him well for the
future."
Potter, who left Brighton for Chelsea in September, had repeatedly stated
that despite the club's struggles he felt he had the full support of the
owners at Stamford Bridge. Sky Sports News chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol
looks at where it went wrong for Potter and why the club have moved now to
replace him...
Co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali's
joint statement
"On behalf of everyone at the club, we want to thank Graham sincerely for
his contribution to Chelsea.
"We have the highest degree of respect for Graham as a coach and as a
person. He has always conducted himself with professionalism and integrity
and we are all disappointed in this outcome.
"Along with our incredible fans, we will all be getting behind Bruno and the
team as we focus on the rest of the season.
"We have 10 Premier League games remaining and a Champions League
quarter-final ahead. We will put every effort and commitment into every one
of those games so that we can end the season on a high."
Who could replace him?
Chelsea will have been doing their homework in the background, trying to set
up a replacement. At the moment, we don't know who that person will be. What
we do know is that they want Julian Nagelsmann and and he is available at
the moment.
The latest information we have coming out from Sky Germany is that they're
not convinced that he's going to want to move from Germany and take another
job straightaway. Maybe he's going to want to wait until the summer to give
him a little bit of a chance to recharge his batteries after leaving Bayern
Munich.
Other jobs could become available in the summer as well, like the Real
Madrid post. But speaking to my colleagues at Sky Germany for the past week,
they've been reporting that if Potter was to lose his job, then Nagelsmann
would be the No 1 target for Chelsea.
It all depends on if Nagelsmann wants to take up another job so quickly.
Can we expect a swift appointment?
Chelsea need to appoint a new head coach, but it sounds like they will be
taking their time. The information we've had since Monday from Sky Germany
is that if Graham Potter was to lose his job, then Chelsea's top target
would be Julian Nagelsmann, who has just lost his job at Bayern Munich.
The information I've got from my colleague Florian Plettenburg at Sky
Germany this evening is it is 50:50 as to whether Nagelsmann would be
prepared to move to Chelsea at the moment. He's lost his Bayern Munich job
and would like to take a bit of time out. You don't want to jump from just
one job to another, especially when you're somebody like him who knows he is
going to be in demand.
The Real job could become available, Spurs are very keen as well. Sky
Germany are saying that it is 50:50 as to whether he would be prepared to
move quickly.
The complicating factor is his contractual situation with Bayern. If Chelsea
wanted Nagelsmann now, even though he is no longer the Bayern manager, his
contract would mean Chelsea would have to agree a deal with Bayern Munich.
Sky Germany says that there has been no contact between Chelsea or Bayern
about Nagelsmann. No negotiations at all.
The Bayern Munich chief executive Oliver Kahn appeared on Sky Germany this
evening just before it was announced that Graham Potter had lost his job.
Kahn said he didn't expect Nagelsmann to move to another club this season
and it would be more likely that he would move to another club in the
summer.
From Bayern's point of view, it would be complicated if Nagelsmann was to
move to Chelsea. We could potentially have a Champions League semi-final in
a month's time between Chelsea and Bayern. In that situation, you could have
Nagelsmann managing Chelsea and Thomas Tuchel - the former Chelsea manager -
managing Bayern Munich.
How it unravelled for Potter at Chelsea
Everybody at the club wanted to give him more time. Todd Boehly was his
biggest supporter and was instrumental in appointing Graham Potter. He's the
one who has really been backing him and keeping him in his job for a long
time.
I know there were a lot of senior people at Chelsea who wanted to make the
change a lot earlier. But ultimately, they weren't able to make that
decision up until yesterday.
If you look at Chelsea's form under Graham Potter, it just simply has not
been good enough. Results have not been good enough for a Chelsea manager.
Under Chelsea's previous owner Roman Abramovich, he probably would have been
sacked three or four times. Chelsea have a history of changing managers very
quickly when results are not going well.
Potter has had seven months at Chelsea and results have not been good
enough. This year, from the beginning of January until a couple of weeks
ago, they won just one in 11 games. Then they had a couple of wins against
Leeds, Dortmund and Leicester before the international break. Then they drew
against Everton and that performance yesterday.
They haven't been playing well, they haven't been scoring goals and unless
they win the Champions League, they're going to miss out on that competition
as well. That is a massive consideration for Chelsea's American owners.
My experience of covering Chelsea - the Chelsea manager has been someone
with a massive personality. Somebody with a big ego, somebody with a CV with
lots of trophies on it. You have to look at the people who have managed
Chelsea in the past 20 to 25 years.
If you go back to September, it was a shock when Thomas Tuchel lost his job.
You're talking about a manager who had won three trophies in 20 months, who
won the Champions League.
When Tuchel lost his job, Chelsea were the reigning Club World Cup
champions, they were sixth in the Premier League. They had a bit of a mixed
start to the season, but it was still a strange decision. Most people
involved in Chelsea and football would say that. To sack a manager of the
calibre of Thomas Tuchel and then the real risk to replace him with Graham
Potter.
No disrespect to Graham Potter but under the previous ownership at Chelsea,
he would not have got the job. He cost Chelsea £21m to get him and his
coaching staff from Brighton. They made a massive investment on him, gave
him a five-year contract. The new American owners were very impressed with
him, the American owners thought he would be the man for the future.
They really, really backed him well beyond the point that most Chelsea
supporters would want him to be sacked. If you're Chelsea Football and you
spend £550m in two transfer windows and you're 11th in the Premier League,
if you're the manager of that club and that's happening under your watch,
that's going to cost you your job.
Were the signings his signings?
A lot of the signings weren't Graham Potter signings, that's not how it
works at Chelsea. The recruitment strategy from the owners is they want them
to buy the best young players in the world and then make a big impact in the
transfer window. Those singings weren't Graham Potter singings. He had a say
in them, he spoke to the players before they signed. But he wasn't picking
those players.
They were players who were given to him to work with. Players at Chelsea
have a lot of power, you need a big personality manage then and to work with
them. Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte, Thomas Tuchel, Carlo Ancelotti, even
Frank Lampard.
Yes, he was inexperienced but his aura and stature at the club meant he was
respected immediately by the players. Graham Potter is a very, very good
coach, but the Chelsea coach is one of the biggest jobs in world football.
To do that job, you need to have the stature of a Mourinho, Conte or Tuchel.
What now for Potter?
I think it will damage his reputation at the top level. He got an incredible
opportunity to manage a club like Chelsea, there was no way he could turn it
down. He did his best, he carried himself impeccably at all times.
He took responsibility for things yesterday, he had to put up with a lot.
People have been reporting on the fact that he may lose his job and he is
one defeat away from losing his job for a long, long time. He has also
spoken about threats sent to him and his family. I would have taken a lot
out of him doing his job as well.
I'm sure he will be back. He's a fabulous coach and manager, but a lot of
mangers with many more trophies and successes on their CVs have lost their
job at Chelsea, Chelsea was just one level too high for him at this point of
his career.
The results have been atrocious. They're as close to the relegation zone as
they are to the Champions League places. Something incredible has to happen
for them to be in that competition next season.
How does Potter exit reflect on owners?
I don't want to criticise the Chelsea owners at all, but these are people
who have very little experience of English football. They have a lot of
experience of running investment companies, becoming very rich and running
hedge funds but when it comes to English football, they are relative
novices.
They would've been taking a lot of advise from different people, different
agents and who would've advised them. At the time in September when they
decided to sack Thomas Tuchel, a lot of people were surprised and there was
a lot of things going on behind the scenes at the club.
It was a shock then and it was equally a shock that they decided to hire
Potter. A lot of owners of big clubs wouldn't have taken that risk but maybe
it was a factor that they are inexperienced in English football which meant
that they looked at Potter, what he was doing at Brighton, and identified
him as the upcoming coach that they wanted to place their faith in.
But it didn't make sense to a lot of people from the start and the jury was
out from the beginning among Chelsea fans who were convinced he wasn't the
right man for the job.
Unfortunately, it just hasn't worked out. In the short-term, Chelsea have
got a game on Tuesday against Liverpool. It's a massive game. Word went out
from Chelsea this morning that Potter would be taking the news conference on
Monday at Cobham.
People were reading into that his job was safe, but clearly that has proven
not to be the case.
Chelsea's remaining 2022/23 fixtures
April 4: Liverpool (H) - Premier League, kick-off 8pm, live on Sky Sports
April 8: Wolves (A) - Premier League, kick-off 3pm
April 12: Real Madrid (A), Champions League quarter-final, kick-off 8pm
April 15: Brighton (H) - Premier League, kick-off 3pm
April 18: Real Madrid (H), Champions League quarter-final, kick-off 8pm
April 26: Brentford (H) - Premier League, kick-off 7.45pm
April 29: Arsenal (A) - Premier League, kick-off 5.30pm, live on Sky Sports
May 6: Bournemouth (A) - Premier League, kick-off 3pm
May 13: Nottingham Forest (H) - Premier League, kick-off 3pm
May 20: Manchester City (A) - Premier League, kick-off 3pm
May 28: Newcastle (H) - Premier League, kick-off 4.30pm
TBA: Man Utd (A) - Premier League
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