[Football] Potter [NOT] at Chelsea

[Icy Gull]

Do you think he's a had a history lesson on the recent successes of Chelsea FC?

That is a line he won’t be using at Chelsea

 

[Mackenzie]

I thought he did really well for the club whilst he was here, transformed our style, improved players, but I always felt he was a little removed from the fans, that the crowd punches after the games were not really from the heart, just a mechanism to be with us in the moment. Only he’ll be able to answer that I guess.

Did he do the emotional intelligence class to enhance his coaching or because it’s something he struggles with I wonder? Perhaps it was a bit of both.

 

[Badger Boy]

That is a line he won’t be using at Chelsea

20 years is a decent period of time to start referring to them as having history! Man City isn't quite long enough though.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

I always felt he was a little removed from the fans, that the crowd punches after the games were not really from the heart, just a mechanism to be with us in the moment. Only he’ll be able to answer that I guess.

Did he do the emotional intelligence class to enhance his coaching or because it’s something he struggles with I wonder? Perhaps it was a bit of both.

I did respect the guy for the way he smiled when faced with that group of feral kids (last seen in the Hostel films) who pursued him post match outside the Amex shouting “Potter...Potter!” trying to get his attention. Can you imagine that happening with Sir Alex Ferguson “Ferguson! Ferguson!” The disrespectful little shits would be picking their teeth off the floor.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Did he do the emotional intelligence class to enhance his coaching or because it’s something he struggles with I wonder? Perhaps it was a bit of both.

Possibly a very astute observation. From some of his actions and over-reactions you wouldn't necessarily be sure he knew what emotional intelligence was.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

One thing that does occur to me though is what the players make of his assistants. You can see a Chelsea "star" might have have some time for Bruno (Guardiola almost bought me once) but the tubby chap from Abba ....... I am not so sure.

 

[Swansman]

I thought he did really well for the club whilst he was here, transformed our style, improved players, but I always felt he was a little removed from the fans, that the crowd punches after the games were not really from the heart, just a mechanism to be with us in the moment. Only he’ll be able to answer that I guess.

Did he do the emotional intelligence class to enhance his coaching or because it’s something he struggles with I wonder? Perhaps it was a bit of both.

As I understand it, it was mainly about learning to control his rage. In his early days as the coach in Leeds university, he used to get very, very angry and scream and swear at the players if they lost a game. But he remembered from his shitty lower league coaches in England that it was completely useless: if they went a goal down or something, the coaches would just scream a lot of bad words in the dressing room and say nothing constructive whatsoever and they'd go on to lose the game because there wasn't any real coaching.

So he did the emotional intelligence thing, which was mainly led by ex-military, where they taught how to be controlled, focused and constructive in pressured or emotional situations.

He mentioned the course very shortly in some interview with Swedish newspaper Expressen and then when The Guardian and other English papers went to Östersund to interview him, they did their research and asked questions about it and turned into a "thing" and its rare that there's a long interview where they don't bring it up. He himself has never brought it up in any press conference or interview as far as I can remember. It is probably a bit overblown - just a minor part of his road towards becoming a top coach.

 

[dazzer6666]

As I understand it, it was mainly about learning to control his rage. In his early days as the coach in Leeds university, he used to get very, very angry and scream and swear at the players if they lost a game. But he remembered from his shitty lower league coaches in England that it was completely useless: if they went a goal down or something, the coaches would just scream a lot of bad words in the dressing room and say nothing constructive whatsoever and they'd go on to lose the game because there wasn't any real coaching.

So he did the emotional intelligence thing, which was mainly led by ex-military, where they taught how to be controlled, focused and constructive in pressured or emotional situations.

He mentioned the course very shortly in some interview with Swedish newspaper Expressen and then when The Guardian and other English papers went to Östersund to interview him, they did their research and asked questions about it and turned into a "thing" and its rare that there's a long interview where they don't bring it up. He himself has never brought it up in any press conference or interview as far as I can remember. It is probably a bit overblown - just a minor part of his road towards becoming a top coach.

That all makes sense. Observationally, he does often appear to be so in control of what he is saying and his emotions that he appears ‘over-educated’ (or too reliant on his learnings) in EI to me. The reactions are thoughtful and controlled, like everything has gone through a logical thought process before being spoken with very little emotional attachment or engagement, and nothing much ‘natural’. May not be a bad thing necessarily (and may also be absolutely deliberate on his part) and each to his own (plenty of ranting loonies at the other end of the scale), but have seen this many, many times in my own career, often to the detriment of the individual who can seem less rounded as a result. Some kind of middle ground usually works best

 

[BadFish]

That wasn't just one swallow - it was the culmination of a lot of swallows! The downer only came when the news about Potter broke.

Who knows how long that purple patch was going to last. Potters time at the club was was ups and downs with terrible runs of form.

Personally I needed a longer run to be convinced that we had totally turned the corner. Definately encouraging signs through.

Just different opinions I guess.

 

[Guinness Boy]

That all makes sense. Observationally, he does often appear to be so in control of what he is saying and his emotions that he appears ‘over-educated’ (or too reliant on his learnings) in EI to me. The reactions are thoughtful and controlled, like everything has gone through a logical thought process before being spoken with very little emotional attachment or engagement, and nothing much ‘natural’. May not be a bad thing necessarily (and may also be absolutely deliberate on his part) and each to his own (plenty of ranting loonies at the other end of the scale), but have seen this many, many times in my own career, often to the detriment of the individual who can seem less rounded as a result. Some kind of middle ground usually works best

Did anyone else notice the camera cut away to Potter watching the replay of the silly handball penalty and almost silently muttering "f*** me". I'm not sure that would have been De Zerbi's reaction, yet I don't imagine De Zerbi as some latter day John Sitton.

I bet all the Chelsea players have seen the clip, too.

 

[Swansman]

Who knows how long that purple patch was going to last. Potters time at the club was was ups and downs with terrible runs of form.

Personally I needed a longer run to be convinced that we had totally turned the corner. Definately encouraging signs through.

Just different opinions I guess.

Who was the last manager Brighton had where there was no ups and downs (aside, from my understanding, Hyppiä - but I'm guessing you dont want him back)?

And does this mean you expect there will be no ups and downs with De Zerbi? Just a straight pathway to heaven?

 

[POSKETT AT THE VALLEY]

Curious at the general sentiment on this, so humour me please...

It’s all history now let it go.

 

[BadFish]

Who was the last manager Brighton had where there was no ups and downs (aside, from my understanding, Hyppiä - but I'm guessing you dont want him back)?

And does this mean you expect there will be no ups and downs with De Zerbi? Just a straight pathway to heaven?

You are asking a Brighton fan of 40 years about ups and downs? priceless

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Observationally, he does often appear to be so in control of what he is saying and his emotions that he appears ‘over-educated’ (or too reliant on his learnings) in EI to me. The reactions are thoughtful and controlled, like everything has gone through a logical thought process before being spoken with very little emotional attachment or engagement, and nothing much ‘natural’.

“I want to be a real live boy, Mummy”
“You will, Graham, you will”

 

[Baldseagull]

What's a more acceptable sample size?

The form table from April 2022 until GP left suggests the upturn in form (and goalscoring) was more than a lucky flash in the pan this season:
View attachment 155587

27 goals scored in 14 PL games (1.93 per game), 2.14 points per game.

Contrast that to RdZ's PL record so far:

View attachment 155588

21 goals scored in 11 games (1.91 per game), 1.27 points per game.

I'm not for a second saying that RdZ hasn't made a brilliant start (not easy picking up the reins from someone else, especially in a new league & country, no matter how good the platform left by the predecessor & how good the club's support systems are). I also believe RdZ is an upgrade on Potter - certainly in terms of entertainment, but also how far he can take the club (though it's early days & time will tell).

What does grate is how so many are still acting like jilted lovers and re-writing history to either pretend that they're not actually bothered he left (because he wasn't all that anyway); or that they were right all along in their opinion that he's rubbish (in a few cases, even though they'd started to admit they were wrong and that Potter was coming good for us).

Impossible to prove, obviously, but if our fans were polled last summer (i.e. even before the great start to this season), I would imagine the overwhelming majority would describe Potter as being better than merely 'par' or 'average' in his performance. I'd imagine that TB and PB would share that sentiment.
There are plenty of articles by respected journalists (and plenty by unknowns too) describing the terrific job Potter was doing at Brighton:

Data in Context: How Did Graham Potter’s Brighton Achieve a ‘Big Six’ Style of Play with a Bottom Six Budget? - Analytics FC

Dan Pritchard assesses Graham Potter’s tactical approach using data to show how he overachieved relative to budget with the Seagulls Almost all football clubs at the professional level use data these days, but fewer are led by that data, used to its fullest potential. This is something that...

analyticsfc.co.uk

Graham Potter’s unique rise to Chelsea and the challenge he faces - Sports Illustrated

Todd Boehly seems to have gotten his first-choice coach, but the former Brighton manager won’t be allotted the same freedom and patience at Stamford Bridge.

www.si.com

10 impressive stats that show why Graham Potter got the Chelsea job

Graham Potter is Chelsea's new manager and has proven himself worthy of the opportunity. Here are 10 impressive statistics from Potter's career to date that show how he's earned his shot at one of the biggest jobs in the country.

www.planetfootball.com

Graham Potter: Chelsea set to appoint Brighton boss as manager in next 24 hours

Graham Potter is set to be appointed Chelsea manager in the next 24 hours, ending his three-year spell with Brighton.

www.bbc.co.uk

If he is actually just an average Joe, plodding his way through his average career, he has done very well to pull the wool over the eyes of so many smart minds in the football world, not least Tony Bloom.

All of that said, I will still chuckle if/when it falls apart at Chelsea which, IMO, would only be because they pull the trigger too soon (I can both appreciate what he did for us, yet relish the schadenfreude if he crashes and burns)

The only fair sample size is one complete season. But if you want, stick us in the form guide for the 25 games immediately prior to the 14 game period over 2 seasons you have chosen for Potter.

I liked him when he was here, I was bothered when he left, but glad he has gone now because we have De Zerbi.

I have not rewritten history, objectively, over 3 seasons there was little to no improvement in results, until the last 8 games of the 3rd season, I have not made that up, that is the history.
I did visit the Amex for 11 games in a row and not see one win (I missed the one home win v Brentford), I did not see a Brighton goal at all in 7 of those 11 games, I did see Burnley put 3 past us, with no reply, their biggest win of the season.
Before those last 8 games, we had 7 wins, 3 of them against sides that were ultimately relegated, 1 against Everton (who were themselves in the middle of a spell of 17 defeats and 3 draws in 23 games), 2 against just promoted Brentford, and one against Leicester at home.

 

[Baldseagull]

Same, I never liked the guy from a personality perspective, and I can't stand him now especially when he keeps saying what an amazing club Chelsea are and how great their fans are. His soul is sold and he is desperately trying to say the right things knowing most of them hate him. Yes he got us playing better football than Hughton and we needed to evolve but I would have happily seen him booted after those horror runs in his first two seasons. Ironically the Potter cult always used the "who else could do a better job" card to defend those miserable winless goal less runs and now we have all sees that Tony and the club are more than well tapped into the global manager talent market and there is ALWAYS someone out there who can do a good job.

One of the reasons I defended him was that it did appear that progress was being made, and I honestly thought that if we were patient with him and allowed him time to improve, we would have some mutual loyalty, and a very long term Coach, which is one reason why it felt like such a betrayal when he f***ed off.

 

[Bold Seagull]

The only fair sample size is one complete season. But if you want, stick us in the form guide for the 25 games immediately prior to the 14 game period over 2 seasons you have chosen for Potter.

I liked him when he was here, I was bothered when he left, but glad he has gone now because we have De Zerbi.

I have not rewritten history, objectively, over 3 seasons there was little to no improvement in results, until the last 8 games of the 3rd season, I have not made that up, that is the history.
I did visit the Amex for 11 games in a row and not see one win (I missed the one home win v Brentford), I did not see a Brighton goal at all in 7 of those 11 games, I did see Burnley put 3 past us, with no reply, their biggest win of the season.
Before those last 8 games, we had 7 wins, 3 of them against sides that were ultimately relegated, 1 against Everton (who were themselves in the middle of a spell of 17 defeats and 3 draws in 23 games), 2 against just promoted Brentford, and one against Leicester at home.

That isn't true though. Up to that run of 6 straight defeats we sat in 9th, we were: P23 W7 D12 L4 pts 33. That was 1.43 ppg, an improvement. The last 9 games got us 18 more points, but given there were 6 straight defeats, where did you imagine the other 33 came from if it wasn't improvement?

At 1.43 ppg we were on target for a 55 pts season, after 23 games we were only 8 points short of the previous season total - how on earth was that not improvement in results?

 

[Jim in the West]

One of the reasons I defended him was that it did appear that progress was being made, and I honestly thought that if we were patient with him and allowed him time to improve, we would have some mutual loyalty, and a very long term Coach, which is one reason why it felt like such a betrayal when he f***ed off.

I know we’ve rehearsed these points many times before and we’re all beginning to repeat ourselves, but this is the nub of things for me. Of course, many will cry that there’s no such thing as loyalty in football anymore - but actually I believe there is (even if it’s becoming rarer).
Potter had a really good gig here, and the security of a long contract, stable ownership and outstanding prospects.
But more importantly he had understanding fans (in the main) and an owner who backed him through some pretty thin times.

We had about a dozen games (at the end of a long wait) where things started to click. But instead of stick around and build on that, Potter buggered off at the first real opportunity. And it wasn’t even the right job for him!!

 

[BadFish]

One thing appears obvious: Potter is a bit shit at winning over the fans. Apart from Swanny who loves him enough for all of us and Chelsea.

I liked him while he was here and was worried when he left. But so far his replacement looks like he may be an upgrade.

 

[Swansman]

One thing appears obvious: Potter is a bit shit at winning over the fans. Apart from Swanny who loves him enough for all of us and Chelsea.

I liked him while he was here and was worried when he left. But so far his replacement looks like he may be an upgrade.

Well the primary way to winning over most fans is to win games. If you win everything, the manager could heil on the sideline and the fans would do the same.