Who is Chelsea’s new manager?
After a series of unfavorable results in the first few games of the new season, the new owners at Chelsea football club decided to fire the manager Thomas Tuchel. Soon after, the hunt for a new manager began in earnest. 48 hours after firing Tuchel, the new owners appointed Brighton manager, Graham Potter, as the club’s new manager.
For some, this appointment assures a long-term project for a proper rebuild. While for others, it seems like a risky move because Potter has never handled a club as big as Chelsea before and it might be a daunting task.
In that light, let’s talk about how Graham Potter built his reputation so high and managed to clinch one of the most lucrative and attractive jobs at one of Europe’s top football clubs.
Graham Potter used to be a footballer. he played as a left-back for a couple of clubs in the English league across different tiers of English football. Some of the prominent teams he played for are Southampton, West Bromwich Albion, Stoke City, and Birmingham City. He played 300+ games over the span of his career and even represented England once at the U-21 Level.
Upon retirement, he worked as a football development manager at the University of Hull and as the Technical Director of the Ghana Women’s team at the 2007 FIFA Women’s World cup. In 2008, he was appointed manager of division 1 side Leeds Carnegie. His time there was a success.
In 2010, he was appointed as the manager of the Swedish fourth-tier side, Ostersund. By 2013, he had already secured promotion twice with the club and by 2015, he got Ostersund promoted to the top flight of Swedish football for the first time in their history. In their first season in the first division, they finished 8th on the log. In 2017, Ostersund won the league cup and got a spot in the second qualifying round of the Europa league. Potter navigated them through all the qualifying round games and secured them a spot in the group stage of the Europa League that season.
His success caught the eye of the newly relegated English club Swansea and they appointed him as their manager in 2018. He got Swansea to the quarter-finals of the F. A cup that season and also led them to a top-half finish in the league. Brighton and Hove Albion had dismissed their manager that season and made an approach to Graham Potter to replace him. He turned down a new contract with Swansea, opting to become the new manager of the Premier League side.
He was appointed in 2019. In his first 2 seasons with Brighton, they finished 15th and 16th on the log respectively, and in his third season, he achieved a top-half finish with the club as they ended the season in 9th position. They had the highest ever point tally in their history in the premier league. His fourth season with the club is this new 2022/2023 season where they started like a house on fire, thrashing Manchester United in the first game of the season.
He was having an outstanding start to the season with the club and apparently, that caught the attention of the Chelsea owners. They immediately came knocking at Brighton’s door after they sacked Thomas Tuchel.
Chelsea paid a 15 million pounds compensation to Brighton for Graham Potter and a further 6.5 million pounds compensation for the 5 members of the backroom staff that left with him to Chelsea. For Potter, it will be a baptism of fire for him at Chelsea as his first game as manager will be against Red bull Salzburg n the Champions league.
#Sport is a segment that keeps you abreast of everything happening in the world of sport, shares facts, and sometimes also takes you down memory lane to relive some unforgettable sporting moments. In this edition, we are looking at the new manager of Chelsea football club.
