Graham Potter Brighton
Under the previous regime, Chelsea were a trophy-a-season club. With the FA Cup to come on Sunday, are Chelsea still a trophy-a-season club or do supporters have to accept it might take a couple of years to bed in a new regime?
“I think we always want to try to compete, absolutely. In terms of how that gets measured, you have to take things as they are and analyse it at the end of the season. We’re not even halfway through the season yet but we’ve got a game in a cup competition that we want to do well in. We want to go through, that’s for sure. We obviously have a difficult game but you saw [on Thursday] we matched Manchester City for periods of the game and gave a spirited performance. We need to do the same again and try to improve.”
Has there been a conversation with the ownership that there might not be a trophy this season?
“Not especially, no. We try to go day to day improving, working on how we can get the team better. I acknowledge the team hasn’t functioned as well as we would like it to and there are lots of reasons for that. I can’t sit here and say I’m a perfect person so clearly I’ve not done everything completely right. At the same time, there are some factors that take into consideration where we’re at. That’s for other people to judge and have any perspective on or not. For me, it’s about how we can keep improving and at the end of the season, you assess what happened.”
The first season Pep Guardiola had at Man City, he fell below expectations and was questioned. But City have built things for Pep and taken the long-term view, is that something for Chelsea to think about going forward?
“The owners are billionaires so they are quite smart – smarter than me that’s for sure. So they understand the challenges that we have and the direction we want to go in. I’ve been here four months and five or six weeks of that have been lost to international football. I think Pep was there a year before they won anything, and obviously, Mikel [Arteta] and Jurgen [Klopp] took a bit of time [at Arsenal and Liverpool].
“Obviously, it’s maybe different for me, for some reason. I don’t put a timescale on things. I know the responsibility we have here but also I know I’m capable and I know the quality that I have. I have the full support of the owners, the players and the staff here and you can see by the support we had [against Manchester City], I thought it was fantastic.
“There will always be people who doubt, there will be people in this room who doubt, but there’s nothing I can really do about that. I’m not here to convince anybody. I’m here to do my work and if that convinces, then fine.”
Do you feel there has maybe been a bit too much negativity around the club in the last few weeks, especially considering for much of that time there weren’t even games?
“I don’t know because I don’t read the newspapers and I stay away from social media. I have no idea. I’ve had some support but I’m not naive enough to believe that when we had the results we had, there isn’t going to be criticism and negativity. That would be strange for me to think that. Again, I’m not sitting here as some egomaniac who has all the answers and gets everything right.
“Of course, that is not the case. But like I said, there are some challenges we’ve faced, some margins in the Premier League that are difficult, and we’ve had a massive transition. Problems with injuries don’t make it easy to be stable but it’s sort of blah, blah, blah isn’t it? People want to see results, so it’s ‘shut up, Graham, what are you talking about? We need to win.’”
You’ve discussed the support you’ve felt from the owners, has that been reassured during their current visit?
“I think this is the challenge for everybody. I don’t think I’d have left my previous job [at Brighton] if I didn’t feel there was a chance the owners would give us support. They are absolutely in line with where we’re at and what we’re trying to do. I’m more confident now that we can achieve things than I was when I started the job because I understand the club, the players, and what’s needed. Obviously, with the past at Chelsea and changes of management, you can see why the questions are being asked. But like I said, I’ve been here four months and if people are going to judge me on those terms – when you consider how many games we’ve had and the challenges we’ve had – that is fine. I can give you a counter-argument in terms of my career and in terms of what I’ve achieved, and people in the game that consider my quality. But I also know that people will dislike it for whatever reason. All I know is I’ve got the total support of the guys above, the players and the staff.”
One win in eight Premier League games would be enough to get you sacked at most Premier League clubs, do you almost feel lucky that you are at Chelsea at this moment in time?
“I’m not sure. I don’t think I would have got the sack at Brighton, which is a well run club. I can’t comment on the others. I’ve no idea what people would do.”
Ok, let’s say a run like this would put a manager under a lot of pressure, do you feel lucky to be at Chelsea given their previous record of hire and fire?
“I would always feel lucky to be at Chelsea because I am grateful and privileged to be here. I understand where you are coming from but there is a completely different ownership than there was. That is hard for some people to get their head around because for 20 years Chelsea was one thing and now all of a sudden it’s different. Yet people still think back to what happened in the past 20 years. That is normal but it is completely different. But again, the reason for me to take the job was the chance to shape a club that is in a massive transitional period. It’s huge. Twenty years is a long time to have that leadership and then to change. With that, I knew there were going to be extreme challenges for sure. It’s not like I jumped at the first opportunity to leave Brighton, I had other opportunities to leave if I wanted to previously. But this one felt right because of the owners, because of the support I felt they would, and that has proved to be the case. They’ve been fantastic.”
You seem very emotionally stable. I never see you having a go at the fourth official, never see you ranting and raving at your players, and you don’t see to get annoyed with us…
“I hide it well!”
There is pressure on you, though, so do you have a way to release that?
“You see me here and this isn’t actually me all the time. Of course, there are times when I get cross and angry. It’s not like I’m some robot and you’re just speaking to this can [of water]. There is stuff that happens but my responsibility when I come to you is to speak as respectfully as I can, even if some of your questions are stupid! I’ve got to answer them as best as I can and respectfully as I can because I represent a fantastic football club. I’ve got that job to do regardless of if I’m pissed off after a game. I have to come here and represent Chelsea in the best way.”
