Us Brighton fans said Potter at Chelsea was going to end one way
Dear Chelsea fans and the football world… well… us Brighton supporters did try and warn you that Graham Potter may not be the best fit as head coach at Stamford Bridge. You dismissed it and said it was all sour grapes because he was opting to move to a bigger and better club.
And here we are, seven months later. The Albion’s bank balance has been swelled to the tune of £21 million, thanks to Todd Boehly paying a world record fee for a manager.
Brighton replaced Potter with a clear upgrade in Roberto De Zerbi, whose attacking brand of football has unlocked goals from players Potter struggled to convert chances with.
The Seagulls are in the fight for a Champions League spot and have a FA Cup semi final to look forward to. Chelsea meanwhile cannot win a trophy this season, are in the bottom half of the Premier League and are now a laughing stock having made the most expensive managerial mistake in football history.
When Potter was Brighton head coach, to point out his flaws was considered high treason. But throughout the first three seasons of his reign, there were a number of issues which suggested that the Chelsea job in particular was not the right one for him to step into European Super League Elite Six company.
Potter’s Brighton would go on good runs of form followed by bad runs of form. It would often take months to turn around those bad patches.
He set a club record for the worst start to a top flight season in Albion history, winning just two of the opening 18 games of the 2020-21 campaign.
That barren spell helped set another club record of 14 home matches without a win. Five months before taking the Chelsea job, Potter oversaw six consecutive defeats and a three month spell where Brighton failed to score a goal at the Amex.
At any other Premier League club in the country, Potter would have been sacked. Tony Bloom showed incredible patience and the payoff was everything eventually coming together after two-and-a-half years. 13 good games of football propelled him to Stamford Bridge.
Bloom was not the only patient one. Brighton fans too deserve credit for their support; discontent barely crept above a whisper despite those barren runs.
That is why Potter’s famous history lesson comments grated so much. If he bristled at a tiny number of fans voicing their displeasure after two months without a win, how would he cope at a club with fans who turn on their manager after just one or two defeats?
A club like Chelsea. We would pay far more than a penny to hear what Potter really thought when he was booed off following the 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa that ended his short and inglorious reign, a chorus of “You don’t know what you’re doing” ringing in his ears.
Puts 100 people booing at the Amex into perspective, doesn’t it? The support Potter received from both Bloom and Brighton fans, maybe now he realises quite how good he had it at the Albion.
Chelsea were never likely to allow Potter to go on a long disappointing sequence of result, or give him the two years he needs for Potterball to click and start working. We did try and tell you, but you know…
Rather marvellously, it was actually Brighton who sparked the terrible run which culminated in Potter finding himself a very rich, unemployed head coach with his reputation dented.
Chelsea won six and drew three of Potter’s first nine games in charge. He spoke about how managing Chelsea was easy with the quality of forwards available, seen in some quarters as a not-so-subtle dig at Bloom for not signing the new striker many thought the Albion needed to thrive.
De Zerbi has since shattered that myth by turning Brighton into a free-scoring team with no new additions. Potter meanwhile has taken the embarrassment of attacking riches at Stamford Bridge and somehow turned them into a side who rarely trouble the scoreboard.
We saw that at the Amex, when Brighton humiliated Chelsea 4-1. Potter was never able to turn things around after that afternoon, winning just four of his next 16 Premier League games in charge. Just as predicted.
Potter went in double-quick time from “managing Chelsea is easy” to telling anyone who would listen it was the hardest job in the world, despite having half a billion pounds worth of new players.
He threw in another dig at the Albion for good measure, saying he would have stayed at Brighton if he wanted an easy life. Those comments just stoked Albion fans further into wanting to see Potter fail.
Had results not been so bad at Stamford Bridge, then maybe Potter could have survived the other flaws in his management which Brighton fans told Chelsea all about.
Like frequently using players out of position. Reece James as a right sided central defender in a back three against Villa, along with getting every single substitute wrong were what led to the chants of “You don’t know what you’re doing”.
Potter never had his weird and wonderful team selections overly questioned when he was Brighton manager. Even at Plucky Little Bournemouth, when he played Dale Stephens at right back, brought on Leandro Trossard and Solly March and had them deliver crosses into the box for Aaron Connolly and Neal Maupay whilst Glenn Murray sat on the bench.
Or when Alireza Jahanbaksh started as a lone striker. Or when Bernardo was deployed in central midfield. The point being, Brighton fans were willing to put up with experimentation from their head coach, giving him the benefit of the doubt. Chelsea, not so much.
And then there was the style of football. The slow build up and the mantra that keeping possession was the priority that overruled everything. Brighton fans were told not to shout SHOOT by Potter because it was unhelpful.
That in turn made goals difficult to come by. At the Albion, so many chances going missing and so many games ending with a zero next to Brighton’s name was frustrating rather than intolerable.
At Chelsea, where winning football and silverware is not just expected but demanded, scoring less goals than bottom of League One Forest Green Rovers between the turn of the year and the end of February was never going to be acceptable.
Some Brighton fans used to grate when Potter would herald every opponent as amazing. To try and claim a 0-0 draw at home to rock bottom Norwich City was a fantastic result, one which Albion supporters should be eternally grateful to their head coach’s genius for earning.
He very quickly learnt that would not work at Chelsea. No manager at Stamford Bridge can be hailing Nottingham Forest as great opponents and expecting it to be accepted.
Potter has not become a bad manager overnight. And as much as most Albion fans have enjoyed his downfall for the way he walked out, asset stripped the club and then kept making disparaging comments whilst at Chelsea, the good job he did at the Amex should not be forgotten.
He overhauled the playing style from Chris Hughton and transformed the profile of the squad into a young, often exciting side. Without the foundations put in place by Potter, the Albion would not be flying anywhere near as high under De Zerbi as they currently are.
What Potter needs to succeed though is a long-term project. A club who are willing to back him through the inevitable bad spells he has always delivered as a manager, whose owners and fans show support rather than dissent when things get tough by viewing the bigger picture.
It always seemed strange that a bloke whose intelligence was viewed as one of his key attributes thought he was going to get that at Chelsea. Funny what £12 million a year for five years can convince people to do.
Potter has to now get his next career move right to rebuild his reputation. He needs a club whose environment will suit him, where he will be given the time it takes to implement his ideas and will not be sacked when an inevitable run of disappointment arrives.
Leicester City could offer that. Maybe even Crystal Palace. For Potter to next return to the Amex in the away dugout as manager of the Eagles would be quite the chapter two in his post-Brighton story.
The right club was never going to be Chelsea, with their unlimited wealth, fickle support and culture of hiring and firing. We did try and warn you…
