King Nwachelsea

🚨 Chelsea held another meeting on Thursday to negotiate the terms for the signing of Manuel Ugarte, trying to decrease the difference between their salary offer and that of PSG.

Sporting are not concerned about which club Manuel Ugarte joins because Chelsea and PSG are both willing to trigger his release clause. The decision is up to the player.

🔗 Record

🚨 Ugarte waiting for chelsea to up their contract offer or match psg contract offer means he really want to play in the premier league and not farmers league. if not, he would have agreed to join psg 3 days ago..

Graham Potter & his staff at Chelsea! 🔵

Graham Potter with John Morris of Wasserman (front) and (back, left to right) Ben Roberts, Bjorn Hamberg, Kyle Macaulay, Billy Reid and Bruno.

1.
Graham Potter – A Brave New Era.

In this thread, I am going to look at why Potter to Chelsea makes a lot of sense and why he is the man we need.

2.
First of all, this is NOT a new situation for Potter.

When Potter took over at Brighton, he replaced a popular manager who was sacked despite good results. Not much different to what’s happening here.

3.
The owners sacked Hughton (despite good results) because they felt his conservative style of football limited their potential. They wanted to develop young players and have a positive football identity. Fans and media were both unhappy at this.

Reminds you of someone?

4.
A lot of people are painting Todd Boehly and our new owners as idiots who know nothing about sports – this is totally false.

Don’t forget Boehly runs the equivalent of Man City/Liverpool in baseball. He knows EXACTLY what he is doing.

5.
In fact, he did something similar at the Dodgers – he bought them, gave some time to existing personnel and then decided to bring in his own people based on data and industry insights. As results show, it has been a phenomenal success.

We know what we are building here.

6.
Several media outlets and rival fans have tried to paint this as a knee-jerk reaction and have spoken about how we haven’t changed since the Roman era. I disagree.

This move shows the exact opposite if anything.

7.
Barring Lampard and AVB, we have always signed coaches who are focused on the short-term. The aim is to win today, even if it affects us tomorrow. But this is an outdated approach.

Hiring Potter shows a commitment to a long-term project. To something bigger.

8.
Potter’s hiring is a clear message from our owners that they are invested in our long-term success and growth. We are ready to accept growing pains in order to achieve sustainable growth.

This is the only way we can catch Man City.

9.
At the same time, we are not making a total U-turn stylistically like we did when we go from Conte to Sarri. Brighton play very similar to how we do, so adaptation shouldn’t be too hard.

It is all about making marginal developments and improving players individually.
10.
Regarding results, this is the reality: Potter is not obligated to finish top 4 or win the CL this season because of his circumstances. But we cannot afford to be extremely bad either.

We should care about a deeper aspect: PROGRESS.

11.
What is progress?

It is a fact that a lot of our young players have stagnated for a while. Some have been ignored altogether. The main aim for this season must be to restart their development, get them going again.

12.
Look at the work Potter has done with Brighton – from veterans like Welbeck to mid-career players like Webster to young players like Caceido. There are very few better than him at player development.

We just need to give him time and space.

13.
Everywhere Potter has been, he has improved his players and his teams. However, this process won’t be simple.

We will lose games along the way, perhaps comically so, and there will be questions. I will tolerate all of them if I see growth. I hope you do the same too.

14.
You can also see Brighton’s development in the form of fivethirtyeight’s SPI ratings (to indicate squad strength) during Potter’s 4 full seasons there:

18/19 – 57.8

19/20 – 69.1

20/21 – 78.7

21/22 – 80

Gradual, consistent growth. 📈

15.
The way Potter has changed Brighton is remarkable but it didn’t happen overnight. Progress was gradual but sustainable. Look at this:

18/19 (pre-Potter) – 37 xG, 62 xGA

19/20 (1st Potter season) – 47 xG, 60 xGA

20/21 (2nd Potter season) – 54 xG, 40 xGA

16.
Growth will be gradual, there will be pains along the way, we will need to be patient. Potter’s methods work in this league and he has a track record of developing different types of players – big academy prospects, mid-level signings and discards.

Trust him, trust the process.
17.
Fans – of both Chelsea and rivals – have no idea of what we are sitting on. We have some highly talented youngsters in the first-team, we have signed (or will sign) a bunch of super-talents and we have the best academy in the world.

We have to maximize this as much as possible.

18.
It sounds like hyperbole but it really isn’t – Our ticket to the top is to get a coach who can develop players and let him work with our collection of talented young players. Do what we did in 2019/20 but even better.

We are sitting on a goldmine and we should use it.

19.
One of the world’s best RBs came from our academy. So did our back-to-back POTY. So did one of PL’s best CBs last year. So did Serie A’s best CB. There are way more than merely them coming up too.

If we use our superpowers right, we’ll go to the top.

20.
As long as we prioritize the right players, we’ll catch up with the best teams in no time. That is what I’ll be judging Potter on. He’s tactically astute enough to compete with elite coaches but I am more concerned about player development.

I want to see improvements in players.

21.
This season might be a bit rough – because the squad is unbalanced, there is minimal training time and so on – so I am not overly fussed with results. Player development is the name of the game here.

Nail that and everything from next season will handle itself.

22.
This is something Lampard did well. He was not great tactically but he improved loads of our players – automatically leading to good team performances and great underlying stats.

Potter is a much better tactician and ego-manager than Lampard.

23.
Lampard is no Pep tactically but he improved Reece, Mount, Pulisic, Tammy among our younger players and Kova and Willian among our veterans. That alone ensured we were a very good team in 19/20.

He looked away from player dev in 20/21 and guess what, he was sacked.
24.
Think of it this way – we committed to a rebuilding project for just one season before aborting. We still won a CL and made tons of money from the fruits of that project.

Now imagine if we carry out the process fully, with an even better coach and an even better team.

25.
The problem with Tuchel was that he cared solely about experienced and/or expensive players by the end.

I lost faith in Tuchel when he stopped developing players. He stopped caring about the long-term health of our club and I cannot support that.

26.
Potter is a better tactician than Lampard and is better at developing players than Tuchel. We might have stumbled upon our ideal coach, one who can take us forward and have us competing with the very best.

As long as we give him the time and space to shine, we will be rewarded.

27.
The media will be out to get us, so will rival fans. We can either take the easy option and end up going back to our usual cycle or tolerate short-term pain and stick to our process.

Doing the latter will lead to unbelievable long-term growth.

28.
Potter will make a bunch of mistakes along the line. The most obvious I can see is over-tinkering tactically.

It is one thing to play a variety of systems with Brighton but at big clubs, that approach is super risky. We need to give him time to learn.

29.
According to PL data, Brighton were the most “tactically” flexible team in the competition. That is both a good and a bad thing.

When you play a game every 3 days, it tends to be more of a bad thing. He needs to ensure our players aren’t very confused. I trust him to do that.
30.
As long as Potter develops players and sticks to his beliefs, I will support him whole-heartedly and trust the process. We will get it right for sure.

If Potter goes down the same path as Tuchel, I will have no problems voicing my concerns.

31.
As long as I see a sustainable process and a path towards becoming a better team under Potter, I will totally support him.

Doubts will emerge only if he does not develop players or prioritizes the short-term down the line.

32.
I will not support him blindly - I never do that - but I will trust him completely until he does something to prove otherwise.

As long as he doesn't focus only on short-term results, I will retain my belief in him because he's one of the best young coaches in the world.

33.
I hope he doesn't become like our previous managers wherein the desire to win now overtakes his principles and he becomes a shadow of the person we signed.

But I will say this again - for what we are now, for what we want to be in the future, there is no one better than Potter.

Chelsea have hired Damian Willoughby from EA Sports as commercial director. Willoughby joins having been chief executive of City Football Group India & was at Stamford Bridge as head of sponsorship until 2010. Big role with new owners looking for serious growth.

🔗 Mike Keegan - Daily Mail

👕 Third kit to be released soon, living in Gold! This is dope 😍🔥💙

📸 Young Wesley Fofana & Aubameyang!

🤩 From an idol to a teammate!