The Blues’ hot seat remains one of the most precarious in football after Graham Potter was sacked as manager on Sunday, but the new owners of Chelsea have been quick to try to put their stamp on the organization.
Potter was only in charge for seven months, and the Englishman was punished for the team’s fall to 11th place in the Premier League table.
After investing over £500 million ($616 million) in new players during their first season in charge, in addition to the £2.5 billion they paid for the club, that was not the return that the American ownership group of the club was anticipating.
In their first season, the consortium led by LA Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital’s Behdad Eghbali has fired two managers.
Despite his successes on and off the field, including winning the Champions League in 2021, Thomas Tuchel was fired in September for his skillful handling of the club’s difficulties last season when sanctions were imposed due to Roman Abramovich’s ownership.
After Abramovich’s 19-year tenure at Stamford Bridge from 2003 to 2022, a culture of hiring and firing is not new. Even illustrious Chelsea managers like Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, and Antonio Conte, who won the Premier League during their tenures, were treated with ignominy by the Russians.
Chelsea fans were still spoilt by success during the Abramovich era, with 19 major trophies, despite the disruption in the dugout. Under the new government, that hasn’t been the case so far.
Potter’s 31 games :
During Potter’s 31 games in charge, Chelsea lost to Manchester City in the first round of the FA Cup and the League, leaving them rooted in the bottom half of the Premier League.
The season can only be saved by winning the Champions League, but getting to the final will be difficult. In the quarterfinals later this month, the Blues take on the defending champions Real Madrid. If the Blues win, they will play either City or Bayern Munich in the last four.
When Potter was taken from Brighton, Chelsea paid more than £20 million for his services. Potter had been sold the dream.
When first rumors began to circulate regarding his future, he stated, “There’s a completely different ownership” earlier in the season.
“People have a hard time understanding this because Chelsea has been one thing for 20 years and now it’s different,”
That hasn’t been the case, as Boehly and Eghbali were frustrated by Saturday’s 2-0 home loss to Aston Villa, which drew boos from the home crowd.
Potter was, at last, the fallen fellow for a scattergun way to deal with the exchange market that uncovered an absence of involvement among the new proprietors.
Last summer, Boehly became the club’s sporting director. He spent £250 million on Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly, Wesley Fofana, Marc Cucurella, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, all of whom have had little success.
Gary Neville, a former captain of Manchester United, compared Boehly’s approach to the transfer market to a fan playing “Football Manager.”
By gazumping Arsenal’s offer for Ukrainian winger Mykhailo Mudryk and breaking the British transfer record for Argentine World Cup winner Enzo Fernandez, the new administration doubled down in January.
In any case, with no quick upswing in results, the possibility of a drawn-out project under Potter was torn up as he turned into the most recent Chelsea chief seen out.