Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand believes that Chelsea's new owners have stuck by manager Graham Potter due to a change of culture at the club. It comes amid growing pressure surrounding the future of the head coach due to a run of poor form across all competitions.
The Blues currently find themselves knocked out of both domestic competitions and currently trail 1-0 to Borussia Dortmund after the first leg of the round of 16 in the Champions League. Things in the Premier League have been far from easy either, sitting tenth in the division.
The latest low for the club came in a 1-0 defeat to relegation strugglers Southampton, who managed a historic double over the west London outfit thanks to a long-range James Ward-Prowse free-kick. Discussing his tenure after the game, Potter said: "I’m sure there will be people out there that think I’m the problem, absolutely.
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"I don’t think they’re right but I’m not arrogant enough to say their opinion isn’t worth articulating. My job is to help the team, keep working through a team period, we’ve had to make some changes today and the truth is we took a step back in our performance in the first half. The response in the second half was good, but it wasn’t good enough.”
With pressure mounting on Potter and the board over his future, it appears as though they are continuing to back their first appointment, though recent reports have linked the club with potential replacements in Mauricio Pochettino and Jose Mourinho. Ferdinand believes that sticking with Potter for now is due to the regime marking a change from the previous hiring and firing in the Roman Abramovich era.
He said on VibeWithFive: "I would go as far to say that Graham Potter has one of the hardest jobs in the league because what he has been given – it is weird to say that, because he’s [been given] crazy amounts of talent [but] he’s a new manager, he’s never dealt with players of that stature, and those egos, and having to manage that.
"So every week, just imagine this, he’s going in, yes he’s got great players at his disposal and they’re not a team, he’s got to formulate a team, and disappoint between 11 to 15 players. All players think they should play, that is one of the hardest conversations.
"You speak to any manager, one of the hardest conversations for any manager is to tell a player you’re not playing this week. How do you pick those players back up again? It’s hard. What I’m saying is that it’s one element of how difficult it is: man management of people."
When asked about the decision to stick by Potter, he added: "I think they’re doing it their way and only time will tell whether they are what they say they’re about. Can they withstand the pressure from outside influences like the media and fans?
"It’s tough in equal ways, just at different ends of the spectrum, he walked into a group that was already formulated before he got there, all new signings. He didn’t walk into a club that was settled. He walked in after a guy had spent £100s of millions on new players coming into that squad. Normally you go into a club and the players are quite settled.
"Then you’ve got a sprinkling of new players. He had nine or ten players that were new to the squad when he arrived, then signs another nine or ten new players. I’m saying don’t look at this as, “oh he’s spending money it’s an easy job There’s a lot of things – even though he’s getting money – that are going against him. It’s hard. [It’s a] hard job. It’s a hard job at the best of times."
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