Graham Potter looks to be ill-equipped and under-qualified for the Chelsea manager’s job. The same could be said of Nathan Jones during his three-month, 14-game tenure as Southampton boss; and ask any Leeds United supporter about the credentials of American coach Jesse Marsch during his year-long spell in charge at Elland Road and the view will probably be the same.
Jones paid the price for his failure at Southampton by being fired and became one of the shortest-serving managers in Premier League history. Marsch, meanwhile, lost his job at Leeds earlier this month after 16 defeats in 37 games.
If Potter suffers the same fate in the days and weeks ahead at Stamford Bridge, it will be no surprise. Chelsea have lost nine of their last 16 games in all competitions and have scored just once in their last five fixtures, so he is fortunate that the notoriously demanding Roman Abramovich, who sacked 10 managers in 19 years, is no longer the Chelsea owner.
Potter’s boss, and the person most likely to decide his fate, is Chelsea’s new co-owner and chairman Todd Boehly. This time last year, Boehly was focusing his energies on his role as co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February sparked a chain of events at Stamford Bridge that resulted in Abramovich being forced to sell the club. By May, Boehly had completed his Chelsea takeover.
Since then, Boehly has overseen the spending of more than £600 million on new players and the sacking of Champions League-winning coach Thomas Tuchel, followed by the hiring of Potter from Brighton & Hove Albion.
Legitimate questions of Boehly’s football knowledge and ability to make such pivotal decisions as the hiring and firing of managers are right to be asked, but the American businessman is not the only senior figure at a football club who may lack the credentials and insight to do that crucial job. Ed Woodward, a banker-turned-commercial director, spent nine years doing the same job at Manchester United before he stepped down in January last year. Those nine years tell a tale of poor managerial appointments and wasted money in the transfer market, and it is becoming an increasing problem in football.
Failing managers feel the heat and, ultimately, lose their jobs for poor results on the pitch. Meanwhile, the people who make the appointments in the first place not only emerge unscathed, but survive to choose the next manager, and the next. Just look at Everton, a club that has turned over more managers than most in recent years and only ended up with Sean Dyche as Frank Lampard’s replacement last month after an ill-conceived move for Marcelo Bielsa fell through.
Sources have told ESPN that Dyche was not on Everton’s initial shortlist, but rejections by others led to his appointment. Ironically, it might just turn out to be Everton’s best decision for a long time, but there was little or no strategy behind it.
