Chelsea sack coach Potter
"Potter has agreed to work with the club to ensure a smooth transition. During his tenure, Potter has guided Chelsea to the quarter-finals of the Champions League, where the team will face Real Madrid. Chelsea thank them for their contributions and efforts. Potter's efforts, wish him success in the future," Chelsea's announcement read.
Also in the statement, the club's two co-owners - Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali - stressed that they respect Potter's talent, professionalism, and stakeholders "are all disappointed with this outcome".
The decision to fire the British leader was announced by Chelsea after a meeting between the board of directors and Potter on April 2. While the club appoints another head coach, Potter's assistant Bruno Saltor will act as interim coach.
Potter is expected to stop the crisis and elevate Chelsea when he takes office at Stamford Bridge on September 8, 2022, replacing his sacked predecessor Thomas Tuchel. But after more than six months of work, the English coach did not meet that expectation. He only won 12 matches, reaching a rate of 38.7%, drawing 8 and losing 11 out of 38 matches to lead Chelsea.
In the Premier League alone, in 22 matches under Potter, Chelsea only won seven, drew seven and lost eight matches. According to Opta, with an average of 1.27 points per game, Potter is one of the two lowest scorers for Chelsea in the Premier League, among managers who have worked at least 20 games. The other is Glenn Hoddle, another British coach who led the team from 1993-1996.
Chelsea spent more than 600 million USD from the summer of 2022, including more than 400 million in January 2023, to bring in a series of quality players. But Potter, with his modern football philosophy, could not turn that expensive team into a championship candidate as expected.
When Potter took over in early September, Chelsea were still sixth, with 10 points from three wins, one draw and two losses through the first six rounds of the Premier League. But after losing to Aston Villa 0-2 at home on April 1 - the last game he worked, the team dropped to 11th in the Premier League. In the remaining two domestic tournaments, Chelsea under Potter were from the third round, because the 0-4 defeats in the FA Cup and 0-2 in the League Cup were all at the hands of Man City.
The Champions League is where Potter achieved the best results, when with Chelsea won five, drew one and lost one, to top the group stage and then beat Dortmund in the round of 18 to the quarterfinals. But that was not enough to save the 47-year-old coach from the outcome of being fired.
According to British media, Chelsea spent nearly $ 26 million to break Potter's contract with Brighton, bringing back the British coach at the beginning of the season. And by signing a five-year contract with Potter with a salary of nearly 14.8 million USD per year, the Stamford Bridge team may have to pay up to 74 million when sacking this military leader.
There are currently two names that Chelsea consider appointing to replace Potter, including Julian Nagelsmann - coach who just left Bayern last week, and Mauricio Pochettino - former Tottenham and PSG coach. According to European football news expert Fabrizio Romano, the Chelsea leadership is leaning towards the Nagelsmann plan, and has contacted the 36-year-old German military leader to discuss the possibility of cooperation.
