Graham Potter, the new manager of Chelsea, stated that he will approach this “quite unusual job” the same way he has throughout his coaching career, which has been mostly spent out of the public eye.
The 47-year-old Englishman, who began his coaching career with Swedish team Ostersunds for seven years before having a brief stint at Swansea City and a very successful one with Brighton & Hove Albion, has taken on by far his greatest coaching position.
Potter’s techniques at Brighton have improved his image, but the expectations at Chelsea will be fresh for a man who is rumored to become the next manager of England.
Potter, who will assume leadership for the first time when Chelsea hosts Salzburg in the Champions League on Wednesday, told reporters, “You have to look at the football club here, the tradition, the quality, to compete in the Premier League and Champions League, it’s a completely different challenge from the one I had.”
“As you might guess, I am very, very excited and looking forward to getting started.”
When asked if working with a team full of well-known individuals will change his strategy, Potter responded that he would continue to rely on his well-regarded communication abilities.
It may sound unusual, but Potter explained that he approaches every job and football club with the utmost respect for every atmosphere and situation.
“Then it’s about understanding them, treating them with respect, and getting to know them. I know that this is a different atmosphere, but we’re still working with people.
“There are many stories claiming that top players are this or that, but in my experience, humans are actually quite complex.
People have egos, and different things test them, and that’s what makes this work so intriguing.
Potter acknowledged that the nine days since he witnessed Brighton’s 5-2 victory over Leicester City, which few could have ever believed would be his final match with the club, had been a whirlwind.
He has selected Thomas Tuchel’s replacement two days after Chelsea’s heartbreaking 1-0 loss to Dinamo Zagreb in their Champions League opener.
You never know what’s around the corner, which is the beauty of life and football. “It feels like nine weeks or nine months, but it’s been great,” Potter remarked.
“Things happened incredibly fast,” I said. “I had some really intense conversations with the owners and quickly I realized that, first and foremost, they were good people, intelligent people, who have made a huge success of their life outside of football and wanting to achieve something really exciting here.”
Potter denied that joining Chelsea was a risk, saying rather that he had left his “comfort zone.”
“There is a risk if you walk over the road,” Potter added. When I was 30 years old, I left England and joined a team that had fired its manager annually for the previous five years.
Following the cancellation of last weekend’s games due to the passing of Queen Elizabeth on the same day that Potter was named, he has spent a little more time than he had anticipated on the practice field with his team.
He is now keen to play against Salzburg, a match that Chelsea can ill afford to lose.
This is a fantastic event for us, and it’s quite thrilling for all of us, he remarked.
