It seems he isn’t it.
We all know he walked into a mess but then so did Ten Hag and look how he’s getting on. Top coaches find a way to make it work at least decently in the short term while still working towards the long term.
We’re seeing pretty much nothing, no slight improvements week to week, we aren’t having lots of ups and downs, we’re just having downs. Every player bar Silva getting worse every week when improving players is supposed to be one of Potter’s main strengths.
It’s looking like Potter is simply a good coach who could eventually get us playing well and getting consistent enough results but who will take way too long to do so because he just isn’t at the standard required. With each passing week it just seems more and more likely that this job is simply too big for him, at least at this stage of his career.
It looks like he’s going to get these last few months regardless so he’ll have a more than adequate chance to prove us wrong with most players now fit and just one game a week.
Other coaches have made a lot of progress pretty quickly under those kinds of circumstances and with worse squads so if we aren’t considerably improved by the end of the season then he can’t have any complaints if he’s removed.
Ideally we would get someone like Flick (say what you want about how he’s done for Germany, Bayern were nowhere near the same beast before he joined and haven’t been since he left them) if possible now and let him use the rest of the season as a sort ofpre-season but I can’t see it, Boehly won’t pull the trigger and I don’t think Flick would leave the German national team just yet. Other than him I can’t think of any options that would excite me.
We just can’t go for another manager who’s simply “doing well" at a lower level club. Can’t afford to waste a large chunk of all these talented young players’ careers on another hopeful punt. We need a proven team builder who has challenged for and won big trophies. Top man management but also tactically astute, and experienced at handling league fixtures alongside European fixtures. Obviously that’s asking a lot but that’s what we need.
Potter seemed very promising and he did build a team for Brighton albeit for a lower level than we aspire to but fair enough. He seems to be a good man manager at least in terms of getting and keeping players on his side, although he doesn’t seem to have any motivational skills.
He doesn’t seem to have any of that other stuff either that would give us that bit of reassurance that he’s been there and done it at this level of football so we can feel confident he knows what he’s doing and will eventually make it work. We don’t have anything like that to cling to.
We all want to give a manager time to build something but you have to show us at least something, and there are simply no positives to take from Potter’s first near 6 months in charge. That can’t be acceptable at a club of this size. You have to show something in that amount of time.
Seems most fans have now had enough after following up 3 consecutive draws with 3 consecutive defeats including to bottom side Southampton with no manager who couldn’t beat 10 man Wolves having been 1-0 up.
On top of that we have just 2 wins in 15 games, 8 goals scored since the beginning of November, no away wins since mid-October, conceded our first league goals at Spurs’ new ground, etc, etc.
Grim Potter
posted on 27/2/23
comment by Harambe (U22339)
posted 2 minutes ago
Bizarrely you’d do well to get Mourinho again. He thrives off a blank chequebook and when given it guarantees success.
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This isn’t 2005, he had a blank chequebook with us and signed absolute dross.
posted on 27/2/23
comment by Jonathan Moore (U11781)
posted 16 minutes ago
comment by Harambe (U22339)
posted 2 minutes ago
Bizarrely you’d do well to get Mourinho again. He thrives off a blank chequebook and when given it guarantees success.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This isn’t 2005, he had a blank chequebook with us and signed absolute dross.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Didn’t he win you A treble?
posted on 27/2/23
comment by Harambe (U22339)
posted 30 minutes ago
comment by Jonathan Moore (U11781)
posted 16 minutes ago
comment by Harambe (U22339)
posted 2 minutes ago
Bizarrely you’d do well to get Mourinho again. He thrives off a blank chequebook and when given it guarantees success.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This isn’t 2005, he had a blank chequebook with us and signed absolute dross.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Didn’t he win you A treble?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
no as he is a utd fan Jose is our most successful manager ever and he loves chelsea and actually lives just around the corner. I think opinion is split on we would have him back. Personally i wouldnt object as he has the passion required to light a fire under these players, plus hed command respect just by being Jose. there are many whod point to at times very defensive football but he did also achieve the first team to score over 100 goals in a season in england. so it could not all have been bad.
posted on 27/2/23
comment by chelseadagger64 (U22880)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Harambe (U22339)
posted 30 minutes ago
comment by Jonathan Moore (U11781)
posted 16 minutes ago
comment by Harambe (U22339)
posted 2 minutes ago
Bizarrely you’d do well to get Mourinho again. He thrives off a blank chequebook and when given it guarantees success.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This isn’t 2005, he had a blank chequebook with us and signed absolute dross.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Didn’t he win you A treble?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
no as he is a utd fan Jose is our most successful manager ever and he loves chelsea and actually lives just around the corner. I think opinion is split on we would have him back. Personally i wouldnt object as he has the passion required to light a fire under these players, plus hed command respect just by being Jose. there are many whod point to at times very defensive football but he did also achieve the first team to score over 100 goals in a season in england. so it could not all have been bad.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I know, in the 16/17 season he won the Europa, League cup and English super cup with United.
Stranger things have happened but it makes sense
posted on 27/2/23
Mourinho?? Give me a break he's finished as an elite manager.
Flick would interest me a lot if we parted ways with Potter.
posted on 27/2/23
comment by Harambe (U22339)
posted 2 hours, 32 minutes ago
Bizarrely you’d do well to get Mourinho again. He thrives off a blank chequebook and when given it guarantees success.
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He'd want his own players, meaning they have to sign another 400m in players, whilst having a dozen on 8 year contracts. All they can do now is either hoping Potter will find a way to make a winning team out of them, or replace Potter with a manager who can with the players they have now. I think after spending 600m in one season there isnt much leeway in terms of FFP or money left in the coffers.
posted on 27/2/23
Tough tough call for Boehly and board to scrap the project.
Admit he got it wrong and bite the bullet.
It seems he will take the massive flack and back his own judgment least till the summer.
But have no fear even the poorest teams in a league get a goal every so often...
posted on 27/2/23
I dunno about Flick. It's more intriguing than it is inspiring. There's a shade of Potter about it in the sense he did very well at one of the most sensible & well run clubs in the world & that's the only point of reference.
If Boehly was to take the bold step of flat out admitting he made a mistake by firing Potter now, he might as well go all the way & throw some of that money he's determined to waste at Tuchel to bring him back. Outside of something extraordinary like Pep or Klopp, that's the only appointment that'll make me feel anything.
posted on 27/2/23
Ten Hag has done superbly at United because he's an excellent manager. But also because he has been backed by the club in terms of bringing in players that matched the profile and characteristics he wanted, in the order of priority he set out, and generally going out of its way to reinforce his authority. I have no idea whether Potter is an elite coach or merely a very good one, and whether he could be a successful fit at Chelsea, but it seems clear that the owner hasn't supported him by buying players he needed or by empowering him in the eyes of the players. Maybe hoovering up top talent with little regard to the short term sporting impact proves to be a winning medium-term tactic, but no one should expect a coherent side with maximum buy-in from all the players in the meantime.
posted on 27/2/23
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 1 hour, 19 minutes ago
Ten Hag has done superbly at United because he's an excellent manager. But also because he has been backed by the club in terms of bringing in players that matched the profile and characteristics he wanted, in the order of priority he set out, and generally going out of its way to reinforce his authority. I have no idea whether Potter is an elite coach or merely a very good one, and whether he could be a successful fit at Chelsea, but it seems clear that the owner hasn't supported him by buying players he needed or by empowering him in the eyes of the players. Maybe hoovering up top talent with little regard to the short term sporting impact proves to be a winning medium-term tactic, but no one should expect a coherent side with maximum buy-in from all the players in the meantime.
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Potter had input on every one of our January signings according to all reliable sources. He has also had nothing but concrete backing from our board.
They needed to do a better job of shipping out the unwanted players, but again like I said, none of these problems or issues are enough to justify 2 league wins in 15.