On the one hand, being publicly praised and drawn onto by a player is a good thing. It shows desire to join, an attraction to the club, a clear-thinking mind to make the move and ultimately the ambition to change teams.
On the other hand though, is it a good thing to be so public? To be so honest? Football fans ask for honesty but to an extremely specific extent; it's a delicate balancing act.
Chelsea have witnessed both of these aspects, and in the same deal. Last summer Romelu Lukaku was very honest about a move back to Inter, and it cost him a relationship with the Chelsea fans that would go someway to defining his £97.5million as the one of the worst transfers in club history. His words of dreaming to return to Stamford Bridge previously had everyone falling head over heels, though.
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That's the knife edge that most working relationships sit on. Football is fickle, score a few goals and most things will be okay. If Granit Xhaka can do a U-turn then so could Lukaku, but it's not about him. This is about Graham Potter's pull, the inevitable links with former players and bringing them up a level to current world champions Chelsea.
A player from Brighton would hardly be human if they weren't enticed by the prospect of playing Champions League football for a team backed by billionaire owners that spend more on Wesley Fofana than the Seagulls can in one window.
That is all understandable, the idea that joining Chelsea could elevate their careers and contracts to more secure terms is the current nature of the brutal footballing beast. But is there a warning to heed about someone courting a move so publicly? Or is it just excitement bubbling over?
Ask Leandro Trossard. He is, on paper, possibly the most likely player to follow Potter to Stamford Bridge in the coming windows, and it seems that he knows it too. Over the international break he didn't shy away from the subject of moving to Chelsea, saying: "Our coach has now left for Chelsea, but speculations about me following him are pointless. If the opportunity arises, I want to go. But I do want to play and not sit on the couch."
The reality of this is that he is being honest. Who, in those circumstances, wouldn't want to go if they were offered ample minutes at a bigger club? Trossard prospered under Potter after joining in the same summer three years ago and has gone on to grow in stature in the league. He has made his international debut and is now cemented in Roberto Martinez's squad ahead of the World Cup, and was already said to be a target for Chelsea before Potter's arrival.
The Belgian is versatile, dogged and very two-footed. He is also improving year-on-year - a familiar tale when being coached by Potter. He has gone from five goals in each of his first two seasons (with three and five assists respectively) to eight goals and three assists last term. He already has five goals and two assists this campaign.
At 27, Trossard is a player that knows his game well, but is also still looking to keep the options open for another move, especially with his contract expiring next summer. After stealing the headlines upon the return of domestic football with a hat-trick at Anfield, being balanced when in change is a great characteristic to have, and it didn't stop him from opening up on Potter's departure. "After Graham left it was weird and strange," he told the Monday Night Club.
"It happened quite quickly. One day we heard the news that he was up there for the England manager and the day after it was confirmed. We had a good period under him and developed as a team so well, we didn't know what was coming up for the next months under the new manager."
Although this is more conservative than his previous message and there is no talk of Chelsea, his admiration for Potter is clear. That's a positive for Chelsea. Maybe not so much for Brighton, and there's a message of warning behind this. Chelsea themselves have had to deal with players and agents issuing their own future updates and surrounding themselves with speculation. Chief of this has been Jorginho.
The Italian is relatively quiet himself but his agent Joao Santos is one of the most publicly active on the scene. Since Maurizio Sarri left in 2019 there are almost cyclical announcements that the Champions League winner would be open to a return to Italy and that he wants to end his career there. That's all well and good, and with his contract also expiring in 2023, it seems a likely option. But Jorginho's form is up and down and when it is down, it's been an issue that all of his managers have struggled to solve.
Given his success at the club over four years - albeit with the mentioned inconsistencies and persistent struggles in certain areas - as vice-captain and a key senior figure, Jorginho should be considered a fan-favourite. He has never truly grown this rapport though and the feeling that he would prefer to be away from London hasn't helped that.
Chelsea will remain flattered by any interest Trossard has in them, and hearing good things about a new manager is never bad for cautious fans. But ensuring that he does not become distracted from performances on he pitch will be key to proving his determination to succeed, rather than being public with his comments and potentially damaging his situation.
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