Graham Potter has had an unlucky tenure at Chelsea so far: Despite huge investments, the 2021 Champions League winner is still on the decline. The results of the team affect the fans – and drive some to terrible dropouts.
After a complicated start to the season in the Premier League, Thomas Tuchel had to vacate his post as Chelsea coach in the fall – although he had led the club from the gray Premier League midfield to the Champions League triumph about a year earlier. The trend did not reverse under his successor, Graham Potter. On the contrary: A renewed Champions League qualification seems impossible at the moment. And the sporting situation leads to dropouts under the appendix: Potter now reported on how the situation affects him and his family.
“When the results are what they are, you have to accept criticism, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy,” he said in an emotional press conference on Friday. “Your family life is suffering, your mental life is suffering, your personality is suffering. It’s not pleasant to go to work and be scolded by someone or be called the worst person in the history of the club. Not that I would let that happen, but you can ask my family how my life has been for me and for them. It has not been pleasant at all.”
The dislike of the trainer leads to tasteless failures among some followers: “I’ve received some not very nice emails wishing me dead and my children to die. Of course that’s not pleasant,” reported Potter. “If we don’t get the results we want, then that’s the way it is. That’s football. But you know there’s a problem if the email you sent is from Potterbastard@gmail.com. “
Since taking office, Potter has won just nine out of 25 games. In winter, the club signed new players in Enzo Fernandez, Michailo Mudryk and Benoit Badiashile for more than 300 million euros, but the club has been without a win for four games. “I understand that the fans go home and get angry because the team doesn’t win, but I assure you that my life has been pretty average for the last three or four months, apart from the fact that I’m very grateful for these am experience.”
The manager also issued a defiant message at the press conference, stressing that he will not give up. “My job is to try to act in what I think is best for the team and for Chelsea and to act with an integrity that’s right for me,” he said. “I never want to be anyone else. I don’t want to be fake. I’ll stay me. I’ll do my best, and if my best isn’t good enough, okay.”
