[Football] An open letter from Graham Potter

[DavidinSouthampton]

Cheers Graham and good luck.

Be interested if anyone on here knows any Southampton fans and how they took Pochettino’s departure. Can’t remember their league position at the time or how much of his team went with him.

As for finishing above Chelsea, it’ll make absolutely no odds to GP et al. They’re hardly going to think ‘Dang, we should have stayed with Brighton and Hove Albion’

I was thinking of finishing above Chelsea as poetic justice more than anything else - li’l old Brighton! Who’d have thought it! Finishing above Chelsea!

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

I was thinking of finishing above Chelsea as poetic justice more than anything else - li’l old Brighton! Who’d have thought it! Finishing above Chelsea!

Well we all need to dream, do we not?

 

[B-right-on]

I do think that Graham is an honourable man and that we can pretty much believe what he is telling us.

Obviously we have very, totally, utterly and completely different definitions of the word 'honourable'.

Mine does not include shafting your boss, your bosses boss, all of the players who play and train with you everyday and obviously care about you and play for you. Nor does it include screwing over Pervis, Collwill, Gilmore and Enciso who joined your team a few weeks before on the basis of you coaching them to their full potential. And nor does it include destroying the hopes of tens of thousands of people (fans) for how ever long or short that is.

I use the Oxford English definition: able to be trusted

Evidence proves that he can't be.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Did he mention how he's screwed Billy Gilmour over?

 

[kevo]

Well I don’t know 100% for sure and nor do you. But it was widely reported.

Also repeated today in the Sunday Times. I guess we'll never know the truth on that one.

 

[kevo]

The newspapers are today saying Chelsea now have their eyes on MacAllister, Casseido and Trossard in January. Hope it is just paper talk but also hope club are scrutinising all contracts.

They're signing a new director of football, who will have a big say in any transfers. Reported today they are looking to do significant business in January, but there's no reason to think they'll restrict themselves to raiding Potter's former club. There will be a lot of consideration over who they need to fulfill certain roles and, as money's seemingly no object, they will be looking far and wide. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't come in for one of the names you mention.

 

[lasvegan]

They're signing a new director of football, who will have a big say in any transfers. Reported today they are looking to do significant business in January, but there's no reason to think they'll restrict themselves to raiding Potter's former club. There will be a lot of consideration over who they need to fulfill certain roles and, as money's seemingly no object, they will be looking far and wide. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't come in for one of the names you mention.

Well, we already know that Caicedo’s boots are worth 42 million. Bring it on…

 

[Silverhatch]

Football is a parochial business. I do not forgive the timing of this seedy and unsavoury transaction. ABHOR the toxicity that the Sky-lazy-journalistic punditry, sheikh, fund-manager, market-debt-financed, oligarch driven top six have dumped on domestic/world football. Potter, for all his much-vaunted emotional intelligence has SHAT on my club and its fan-owner. Despite being a good bloke and fabulous, probably unique coach, he can **** right off. It’s a Goldstone retail park moment (for me). Stupid and irrational I know - but I really want it to go badly wrong for him and that nasty, shitty Kings Road club.

 

[Miami Seagull]

Thoroughly enjoyed this read… https://www.90min.com/posts/brighto...tter-needs-thicker-skin-to-survive-at-chelsea

 

[Klaas]

Thoroughly enjoyed this read… https://www.90min.com/posts/brighto...tter-needs-thicker-skin-to-survive-at-chelsea

Is good and correct, although I disagree slightly, in that I think one reason it was made into such a big thing by the media was that they caught him on camera saying what he did, pitchside, whilst people were booing. That's a story right there for the relentlessly tedious rolling sports news we have now.

 

[sparkie]

What has happened has happened and we move on. But to where?

The newspapers are today saying Chelsea now have their eyes on MacAllister, Casseido and Trossard in January. Hope it is just paper talk but also hope club are scrutinising all contracts.

Finally, the one I feel sorry for is Billy Gilmour. Apparently only signed to us from Chelsea, on the promise of being under Potter. That went well for him!!!.

Are those the same newspapers that are so well researched that they think Mac Allister and Trossard are out of contract in the summer ?

What do they think about Chelsea wanting Zakharyan from Dynamo Moscow ? Are they going for Mac Allister as well in the same midfield ? A completely new team in January ?

 

[Icy Gull]

Is good and correct, although I disagree slightly, in that I think one reason it was made into such a big thing by the media was that they caught him on camera saying what he did, pitchside, whilst people were booing. That's a story right there for the relentlessly tedious rolling sports news we have now.

I didn’t disagree with him at the time. He won’t be able to use the history lesson line at Chelsea though

 

[Mo Gosfield]

1 good year.

Hang on. It looks a good year on paper but it was still the same old Potter rollercoaster.
Four wins in the first five, followed by eleven without a win. A rally over Xmas and New Year, followed by six straight defeats, without scoring. A strong finish, losing only one of the last nine. In the poor runs he tinkered and changed too much and players lost confidence. He gambles a lot and Brighton gave him the scope to do this. We had a fantastic chance to finish even higher last year but the six straight defeats scuppered that and he was powerless, at the time, to turn it around.
We were heading for 13th place at HT v WHU on the final day of the season before an extraordinary series of results saw us jump to 9th.
After 15th and 16th place finishes ( with the squad strengthening all the time ) 13th would have looked quite ordinary. 9th was a different matter. It started to push us towards ' best of the rest ' and Potter was in the spotlight.
A very strong start this term cemented the view that he was the man in demand but had we started poorly and been sitting in the bottom three, would he be Chelsea manager right now?

 

[chaileyjem]

No I don’t know - hence I don’t post it as fact. I don’t remember that being credibly reported anywhere but my guess would be Pitter didn’t turn them down. Of course there’s interest but interest and concrete offers are different. :

It was reported in The Athletic last week. Potter “turned down an approach from Spurs”
https://theathletic.com/3576054/2022/09/08/tuchel-sacking-chelsea-potter/?source=user_shared_article

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

F**k I’ll be glad when the club appoint a new head coach and we can all move on….

Amen to that. So much conjecture being bandies about back and forth. Whether we like it or not the Potter era is over, we need to get our heads around that fact.

 

[B-right-on]

Hang on. It looks a good year on paper but it was still the same old Potter rollercoaster.
Four wins in the first five, followed by eleven without a win. A rally over Xmas and New Year, followed by six straight defeats, without scoring. A strong finish, losing only one of the last nine. In the poor runs he tinkered and changed too much and players lost confidence. He gambles a lot and Brighton gave him the scope to do this. We had a fantastic chance to finish even higher last year but the six straight defeats scuppered that and he was powerless, at the time, to turn it around.
We were heading for 13th place at HT v WHU on the final day of the season before an extraordinary series of results saw us jump to 9th.
After 15th and 16th place finishes ( with the squad strengthening all the time ) 13th would have looked quite ordinary. 9th was a different matter. It started to push us towards ' best of the rest ' and Potter was in the spotlight.
A very strong start this term cemented the view that he was the man in demand but had we started poorly and been sitting in the bottom three, would he be Chelsea manager right now?

Can't argue with that at all. Original post I replied to said 3 good years.

 

[Swansman]

It was reported in The Athletic last week. Potter “turned down an approach from Spurs”
https://theathletic.com/3576054/2022/09/08/tuchel-sacking-chelsea-potter/?source=user_shared_article

The same article indicating that Graham Potter had a higher annual salary than Thomas Tuchel, Frank Lampard, David Moyes, Steven Gerrard, Eddie Howe etc.

A dubious statement (to say the least, considering that representatives has been outspoken about a sustainable wage structure) which makes it easier to question whether anything in the article could be seen as factual.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Thoroughly enjoyed this read… https://www.90min.com/posts/brighto...tter-needs-thicker-skin-to-survive-at-chelsea

Thanks - I’ve booked marked this article as I suspect I will need it in the future!

 

[Saladpack Seagull]

Cant be bothered to read anything Potters says or what is written about him now. For me he is just another manager at another club. He is not Brighton

Exactly. He wears another club's badge now and is an opposition manager, hoping to turn us over on the field having stitched us up off it. His arrival address to his new club included praise for their "amazing" fans! His coat is well and truly turned and we were nothing more than a stepping stone on his way to greater riches. TBH I'm more gutted that "once a Seagull, always a Seagull" Bruno went in the way he did. Never saw that coming......

 

[GoingUp]

With regards to Potter taking all of our players, I think most of them will be a level under Chelsea when you consider the war chest Potter will be given for the next couple windows, they will be shopping in Harrods.

I know managers like to bring in players they know and trust but:

Caicedo is he ready to step up Chelsea? I dont think so YET, he needs regular week in week out football which I doubt he will get at Chelsea.

Sanchez, is he really going to take Mendy's spot? No chance, I would be happy for part ex if that's who Potter wants as his number 1.

Trossard, top class on his day but there are no 'on your day' at Chelsea, you need to be firing every week, the club and fans would demand prime Hazzard years and that's naturally who he would be compared against if he went.

Ali Mac, a worrying one but again I don't think he is world class yet, not every week anyway. He has those days, like last week but hes not a regular KDB, Dybala, Bruno Fernandes etc he could be in the future but I don't see him leaving yet to sit on the bench at Chelsea.

What I'm saying is, I don't think we have to worry about Potter poaching our players yet.

Saying that, we know Potter does like to buy players and bed them in slowly and if they are offered 200k + p/w to do that with a big signing on fee, they may choose to go.