Graham Potter has admitted he felt humiliated after being sacked by Chelsea, as he reflected on the “perfect storm” leading to his departure.
The 49-year-old was appointed Chelsea boss in September 2022, replacing Thomas Tuchel, as the Blues spent £21.5million to bring Potter and his coaching staff to the club from Brighton.
However, he was dismissed just seven months later, with Chelsea sitting 11th in the Premier League table following a defeat to Aston Villa in April 2023, in what proved to be his final match in charge.
Reflecting on his sacking in an interview with The Telegraph, Potter suggested the problems began with a hectic fixture list caused by the mid-season World Cup in Qatar.
“It was almost like the perfect storm,” he said.
“It was 14 matches in six weeks prior to the World Cup. It was like you were in the washing machine, that's what we said within the staff, because the games kept coming and we had no preparation time.
“We lost Reece [James] and Wesley [Fofana] to injury. I think we had the most players at the World Cup and pretty quickly afterwards we lost Raheem [Sterling] and Christian Pulisic.”
While Potter did not have a summer transfer window at the club, he was in place for a record month of spending in January.
Enzo Fernandez, Mykhailo Mudryk and Noni Madueke were among those brought in as part of a £323million spree, which Potter suggests immediately raised expectation to unrealistic levels.
“The ownership decided to invest a lot of money in the squad, £300 million in the January transfer window,” he said.
“Now, if you are spending £300 million on players that are coming from outside the Premier League, from countries that are having a mid-season break, then the reality is you can’t just imagine they are going to hit the ground running and everything’s going to be fine.
“But, obviously, if you spend £300 million, the pressure on the team goes up and the pressure on the coach goes up. And people go: ‘Come on then, you’ve spent all this money.’
“I think if I’d have spent it on Harry Kane and Declan Rice, then fair enough, but at the time that was the decision.”
On how team meetings worked with such a bloated squad, Potter added: “A few of them just had to sit on the floor. It’s not ideal, of course.”
Potter has been out of work since leaving Chelsea 17 months ago, though revealed he has received a number of offers from clubs in England and across Europe as he looks to bounce back from the setback to his managerial career.
“It’s a bit like a grieving process in a way, it gets better with time,” Potter said.
“You have to try not to beat yourself up, but you can’t just blame everything on somebody else. You’ve got to find the right balance. It’s not nice because of the high-profile nature of it.
“There’s a humiliation that it doesn’t go well. I was sacked after seven months of a five-year contract after being taken from Brighton, so there’s all that on a human level you have to deal with.”
