Breaking: Chelsea sack Graham Potter after six months in charge
After dropping to the lower half of the table in Premier League, Chelsea authorities have decided to sack their manager Graham Potter with immediate effect. Bruno Saltor will take charge of the team as Interim Head Coach.
Announcing the news on Chelsea’s official website, co-controlling owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali said, ‘On behalf of everyone at the club, we want to thank Graham sincerely for his contribution to Chelsea. We have the highest degree of respect for Graham as a coach and as a person. He has always conducted himself with professionalism and integrity, and we are all disappointed in this outcome.”
Club statement.
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) April 2, 2023
They further added, “Along with our incredible fans, we will all be getting behind Bruno and the team as we focus on the rest of the season. We have 10 Premier League games remaining and a Champions League quarter-final ahead. We will put every effort and commitment into every one of those games so that we can end the season on a high.”
Graham Potter leaves with the second-worst record of any Chelsea manager in the Premier League era (40% win percentage overall, barely 30% in the league). This weekend’s 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa at home, the final straw, was his 8th defeat in 22 Premier League games. At one point, Chelsea had gone without a win in six straight (longest in a decade) and an absolutely futile sequence from November to March saw the Blues win just twice from fifteen games — Chelsea’s worst run for three decades. Potter did eventually arrest the slide, but that turned out to be just a temporary reprieve. He could not find the solutions needed.
With Potter’s exit, there are few names that are expected to take charge of the London-based club. Former Bayern Munich manager Julian Naggelsmann is the favorite to succeed Graham Potter at Chelsea. Former Tottenham Hotspur and Paris St. Germain manager Mauricio Pochettino is also being linked with the high-profile job.