Graham Potter interview: Chelsea was the perfect storm but I’m ready to return

Graham Potter decided it was time to disappear from the public eye after being sacked by Chelsea. But, 17 months on, looking relaxed and trim – that famous ‘glow-up’ perfectly maintained – he is ready for his relaunch.

In his first major interview since leaving Chelsea in April last year, Potter spoke to Telegraph Sport about why it has been important for him to reset after the “perfect storm” at Stamford Bridge. He says he is excited to return to football and is confident he is getting better with age, cosmetically and professionally.

Having already received offers from clubs in England and in Europe, as well as national associations overseas, Potter believes sporting directors and chief executives will be mindful of how the likes of Unai Emery and Eddie Howe bounced back from bruising experiences.

“I’ve felt ready to return for a little while,” said Potter. “It still has to be the right thing, but I’m excited for it. I’m excited to hear what the opportunities are and I’ll take each one and judge it on its merits.

“It wasn’t so long ago that Eddie Howe left Bournemouth after they had been relegated, he took 18 months out and now he’s at Newcastle doing brilliant things. If you look at Unai Emery, how he was received after leaving Arsenal and look at what he’s doing now. This is the job, the challenge of football. I see it [Chelsea] as an unbelievable experience that I’ve had, it didn’t go as well as I’d have liked. I have to take responsibility for that, but I think I’m better for it and I’ll be a better coach, for sure.”

‘I chose not to be in the public eye’

It was not just seven brutal months under the Stamford Bridge microscope that prompted Potter to take some time out, but almost 13 years of coaching that took him from the fourth tier of Swedish football into the last eight of the Champions League. The £21.5 million Chelsea spent to hire him and his staff from Saturday’s opponents, Brighton, remains a world-record fee for a coaching team.

There is still a sense of disappointment that he was not given the Champions League quarter-final tie against Real Madrid by Chelsea’s owners, but Potter has shaken off the feelings of anger, frustration and humiliation that immediately followed his dismissal with a little help from Taylor Swift.

“It’s a bit like a grieving process in a way, it gets better with time,” said Potter. “You have to try not to beat yourself up, but you can’t just blame everything on somebody else. You’ve got to find the right balance. It’s not nice because of the high-profile nature of it. There’s a humiliation that it doesn’t go well. I was sacked after seven months of a five-year contract after being taken from Brighton, so there’s all that on a human level you have to deal with.

“The first six months were tough because I worked really, really hard to get that type of opportunity. I don’t think it was the only opportunity I was going to get because I left Brighton in a really, really good place. So it was about choosing the right opportunity. And I didn’t choose the wrong one, it just didn’t work out. I don’t have any regrets over doing it, but, at the same time, when anybody loses their job, there’s an element of frustration, anger and maybe bitterness at some point.

“The most important thing was to be with my family and friends, just connect with them. Being in the public eye is a by-product of the job, so I chose not to be when I didn’t need to. I spent some time with Steve Borthwick at England rugby. I went to the US and saw some sports over there, some organisations. I went to the Falklands and did a leadership talk, and, much to the horror of my 14-year-old boy, I went to see Taylor Swift in concert. He’s not as much of a fan as me.”

There was also time to take Spanish lessons and Potter added: “As the brain gets a bit older it’s not easy to do. I needed to create routines in my life and when I was off, part of it was the gym and part of it was Spanish lessons.

“I had a tutor. I’ve had a bit of a break from that now, but I’m doing the apps and studying, and I’ll see how that goes over the next few weeks, months, see what happens work-wise. It’s more for the brain and to learn a language.”

‘I’m getting better with age’

Potter looks good for his time away, thanks to hitting the gym and maintaining his styled beard and hair. The ‘glow-up’ – as the modern parlance has it – may also have extended to an even, shiny white smile. Although that will have to remain unconfirmed.

“The ‘glow-up’ is good news as I’m getting better with age,” said Potter with a big grin. “It’s amazing what having a shave and haircut does. But when I look back at old photos… it’s not because I’m good [looking] now, it’s just that I was bad when I was younger. So, thankfully, there’s a slight improvement.

“There was a low bar, so I didn’t have to do too much! But part of the reflection was the need to look after yourself, self-care, so I have to maintain my ‘glow-up’. I’ve tried to get into some good habits, which I’ve done and I’m really pleased with.”

‘If you spend £300m, pressure goes up’

Reflecting over what went wrong for Potter at Chelsea is not straightforward. Those who argued the 49-year-old was out of his depth might now look more sympathetically at the circumstances in which he had to work.

“I take responsibility for the results,” said Potter. “I’ve never said I’ve ever been perfect and you live and you learn, and you are grateful for the opportunity and grateful for the experience you had there. But there’s probably a context that has appeared. The easy solution is Chelsea aren’t winning, so it must be the coach who has never worked at this level before, he’s the problem. That might not be 100 per cent wrong, but it’s not 100 per cent right.”

Having succeeded Thomas Tuchel in September 2022, Potter had to navigate a congested schedule, a mid-season World Cup, an injury crisis and a record £323 million January transfer spend that left him with a squad so big that the players could not all fit into the changing room at Chelsea’s training ground – or the meeting room. Just for good measure, the club drew Manchester City away in both domestic cup competitions.

“It was almost like the perfect storm,” said Potter. “It was 14 matches in six weeks prior to the World Cup. It was like you were in the washing machine, that’s what we said within the staff, because the games kept coming and we had no preparation time or anything.

“We lost Reece [James] and Wesley [Fofana] to injury. I think we had the most players at the World Cup and pretty quickly afterwards we lost Raheem [Sterling] and Christian Pulisic.

“Then the ownership decided to invest a lot of money in the squad, £300 million in the January transfer window. Now, if you are spending £300 million on players that are coming from outside the Premier League, from countries that are having a mid-season break, then the reality is you can’t just imagine they are going to hit the ground running and everything’s going to be fine.

“But, obviously, if you spend £300 million, the pressure on the team goes up and the pressure on the coach goes up. And people go: ‘Come on then, you’ve spent all this money.’ I think if I’d have spent it on Harry Kane and Declan Rice, then fair enough, but at the time that was the decision. We tried to support it as best we could, but it left us with a challenge of a lot of players after January and then they can’t go anywhere.”

Asked how he coped with the logistics of trying to coach a squad of players that could not all fit into Chelsea’s meeting room, Potter said: “A few of them just had to sit on the floor.

“It’s not ideal, of course. Everybody recognised it was a really difficult situation because you can only pick 11 players and if you’ve got 20 players not playing, it doesn’t matter where you are. If you can find a coach out there who says: ‘Yeah, that’s the best condition for me,’ I’d be very surprised.”

‘Disappointment’ at not facing Real

The home defeat to Aston Villa that sealed Potter’s fate was at the end of a five-game run in which Chelsea only lost once and knocked Borussia Dortmund out of the Champions League.

The Dortmund success meant that Potter did not lose a Champions League tie during his seven months in charge at Chelsea, but he was replaced by interim manager Frank Lampard before the team faced Real Madrid in the quarter-finals.

“I can’t lie, of course it mattered to me – it’s Real Madrid in the last eight of the Champions League,” said Potter. “It was like ‘what a game’. We actually felt we could do something. So that was disappointing.”

Potter’s Champions League record further enhanced his reputation in Europe, having competed in the Europa League with Ostersunds, who he took from the Swedish fourth division, beating Galatasaray and Arsenal along the way.

“The European run with Ostersunds was amazing,” said Potter. “To beat Galatasaray over two games – if you look at the two clubs, it’s David vs Goliath times 10. The Champions League is just a different level and to go to the San Siro, beat AC Milan twice, win away at Salzburg and beat Dortmund, who reached the final a year later, they were brilliant experiences for me.”

‘I like the day-to-day of club management’

Potter and his family still live in Brighton, where he spent more than three successful years and took the club to fourth place in the Premier League before leaving for Chelsea.

But, despite retaining a great sense of pride for what he helped the club achieve and affection towards the players, staff and fans, Potter never saw himself returning to Brighton this summer.

“My thoughts were always that it wasn’t the right thing to go back,” he said. “It wasn’t the right time for that. Who knows in the future because I’ve got a lot of friends there and I’ve got a lot of time for Tony [Bloom] and Paul [Barber], and there are great people. But in my head the next step is to do something else. It might not be as good as that opportunity because I know how good a football club it is, but at the same time I think I need to go on a different path. That was my thoughts, irrespective of whether they wanted to speak to me or not.”

So what is next for Potter? He is on the Football Association’s list of candidates for the England job if Lee Carsley is not given the permanent post and has already been linked with Everton since confirmation of the change of ownership.

“I like the day-to-day and the building process of club management,” said Potter. “International management is a different rhythm and there are pluses for that. It’s more intense when it’s on, but you’ve got a bit more breathing space in between. It’s nothing that I’ve ruled out, but at the same time I do like the day-to-day bit of working with the players and being in at the club and trying to build and make a difference. Making a difference to people is why you do this. When you look back at the players you’ve helped in some way. That’s the most rewarding part.”