Chelsea Football Club has sacked Graham Potter as manager after just seven months in charge. The club’s owner, Todd Boehly, is reportedly preparing for a long and thorough search for a new boss after seeing his first appointment fail to turn the club’s fortunes around. Potter was hired on a five-year deal worth £12m-a-year after Champions League-winning manager Thomas Tuchel was axed following a poor start to the season. Chelsea backed the former Brighton boss with £330million in the January transfer window, taking their spend this season above £600m. However, Potter was unable to improve the team’s performance, and the Blues slipped to 11th in the Premier League after their 2-0 home defeat to Aston Villa on Saturday.
Bruno Saltor has been named as interim manager of the Blues and could stay in charge until a permanent successor for Potter is appointed. Boehly and the rest of Chelsea’s top brass have accepted that they are unlikely to qualify for next season’s Champions League via a top-four finish, although they are preparing to face Real Madrid in the quarter-finals next week. Therefore, they are prepared to wait and launch an extensive search for a new man to take charge and lead them long-term.
German coach Julian Nagelsmann, who was surprisingly sacked by Bayern Munich last month and replaced by Tuchel, is the early bookies’ favourite for the job. The 35-year-old arrived at Bayern from RB Leipzig in 2021 and won the league by eight points in his first season in charge, as well as leading them to back-to-back German Supercup wins. Reports have also claimed that new Chelsea technical director Christian Vivell is “pushing” for him to take charge.
Former Spurs and PSG boss Mauricio Pochettino is another favourite with the bookies and remains a free agent having been sacked by Paris Saint-Germain in June 2022 despite leading them to the French title. Other candidates include former Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane, former Spain manager Luis Enrique, Eintracht Frankfurt’s Oliver Glasner, and even two-time former Blues boss Jose Mourinho, who is now at Roma.
Potter leaves Chelsea with the worst record of any Blues manager in the Premier League era, being dismissed after a horror run. The former Brighton boss leaves Stamford Bridge with the worst points-per-game record of Blues bosses who have managed more than 20 games – picking up an average of 1.27 points per game. Potter won seven of his 22 league matches in charge of the club, drew seven, and lost eight. That translated to the Blues collecting a mere 28 points from an available 66. Potter was in charge of Chelsea for a total of 31 games, in which he won 12, drew eight, and lost eleven matches.