As the co-owner of a club, and having been a player, I can empathise with different sides in the Graham Potter situation.
At Macclesfield, as the ‘Chelsea of non-League’, we are everyone’s cup final. So now I know what it must be like at the top end to win every game of football. The pressure to win is immense – we have the biggest budget, the best capabilities, the biggest stadium, the best players. It’s immense.
I’ve been a Premier League player, too – at Leicester, Blackburn and Derby, and you tend to know when a manager is under pressure. You see it, feel it and, I have to be honest, footballers are very selfish.
Lads will talk in the dressing room. They’ll have WhatsApp groups. They’ll know what pressure a manager is under. So the next two games for Graham – Leeds and Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League – are crucial.
If it was Graham who had said he needed x or y player for his system, and they had done all the analytics and supported him with those players, then he’d be justifiably under pressure. But if it was the club that brought in all those players and told him to make it work then I’d expect the people upstairs to stand by him.
I’ll be amazed if he doesn’t start with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for Saturday's game against Leeds. Whatever the problems are behind the scenes – and I don’t know how he trains, what his personality is like or whether he’s a good influence or not – you have to act in the best interests of the club.
Tactically Graham hasn’t found a way to win matches without Pierre and the team can’t score.
So you can’t hope to achieve your long-term objectives if you can’t fulfil your short-term ones. Chelsea have won just two of the last 15 Premier League games. They’ve lost their last three without scoring and they’ve scored four goals in their 11 matches this calendar year. It’s not good enough.
I remember being at Derby and being left out of the team. The biggest relief for me – although it was horrific – was when they made a change because I managed to get an opportunity.
This is nothing against that manager – to manage in the Premier League you have to be in the top one per cent. I probably let him down with my performances, because on the back of a broken leg, I wasn’t the player he thought he’d signed.
But as a player you’re thinking, ‘I signed the contract, the club gave me that contract in good faith. Why should I relinquish all that money when I’ve signed in good faith? It’s not because I’m not trying’.
That’s why sporting directors are so important – so that you have a group of players in the plans of whatever manager you bring in. Running a club for two years, I’ve seen so many things that fans will never fully understand. Big things, small things, family issues, anxieties that influence decision-making on a matchday.
I’ve sat down with Premier League CEOs and asked about running the biggest football clubs in the world and they’ve told me that you have to act in the best interests of the club. Always.
So when this is over – even before then – serious questions have to be asked about Chelsea’s recruitment. They’ve brought in so many players, Graham won’t know his best team until next season. At Macclesfield we’ve built a team that we have faith in. They know their jobs. It’s like muscle memory. But that comes after six months playing together.
I hope Graham gets that long but the way things are going, I couldn’t guarantee it. Nobody can, not even the owners now. ‘Graham won’t know his best team until next season’
