ONLY 466 days separate the night Thomas Tuchel lead Chelsea to Champions League glory against Manchester City at the Estadio Dragao in Porto and the German manager being relieved of his Stamford Bridge duties after 1-0 defeat to Dinamo Zagreb in the group stage of the same competition.
The timing of Tuchel’s dismissal came as a shock to many – he had been handed a squad refreshed with more than £200m worth of new signings this summer and it was presumed, despite Chelsea’s indifferent form for much of 2022, that he’d be given time to get a tune from it.
There had been a feeling the Blues’ higher-ups might want their own man in the dugout before long, though, and it has been reported that they’d already made up their mind that Tuchel was yesterday’s man before the Zagreb loss.
But who will new owner Todd Boehly turn to in his search for a new custodian of Chelsea’s expensively assembled side? Here are three options.
Graham Potter
Brighton boss Graham Potter is reportedly among the leading candidates to replace Tuchel at Stamford Bridge and it’s easy to see why.
The Solihull-born former left-back has taken an unconventional route to top-level management, having begun coaching at Hull University, before taking on roles with the Ghanaian women’s national team and Leeds Metropolitan University.
He travelled to Sweden for his first experience managing in professional men’s football, where he impressed in seven and a half years with Ostersunds, taking the unfancied provincial side from the fourth tier to the top flight and Europa League football.
✅ Jurgen Klopp✅ Pep Guardiola✅ Jose Mourinho✅ Arsene Wenger✅ Rafa Benitez✅ Erik ten Hag
😎 Graham Potter already has wins over some big coaches pic.twitter.com/veKoo2hSmH
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) September 7, 2022
A brief stop at Swansea City saw Potter take the recently relegated side to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup and a mid-table Championship finish. His year at the Liberty Stadium was enough to earn call from Brighton to replace Chris Hughton in 2019.
Potter’s fine work in East Sussex has garnered rave reviews and taken the 47-year-old to the top of speculative “next manager” lists any time a vacancy is anticipated at one of the Premier League’s biggest clubs.
Despite a modest budget and being faced with losing his best players on a regular basis – as was the case with Marc Cucurella’s £62m sale to Chelsea this summer – Potter has consolidated Brighton’s top-flight status while improving the players at his command and producing some of the division’s most attractive football.
Potter is already well versed in the 3-4-3 set-up for which Chelsea’s squad has been assembled, having used a similar approach in much of his time with Brighton. A move to Chelsea would surely appeal on several levels, too – it would present little geographical upheaval for his family; he would be given the chance to test his methods working with top-level internationals and with a transfer budget to dwarf anything he has previously seen; and he has arguably reached the zenith of what is possible for his Brighton side, given the comparative budgetary constraints.
The one concern for Potter, however, would be around whether he fears Chelsea’s typical impatience with managers would see him not given the requisite time to implement his tactical style and to gradually develop players through his work on the training pitch.
