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Chelsea have spent a reported £274 million on new players and changed managers since the end of last season, yet they somehow contrived to make their team worse. That is some achievement by the club’s new owners, a consortium led by Los Angeles Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly. But for now at least, it is manager Graham Potter who is shouldering the brunt of the criticism for poor results and uninspiring performances.
That’s how it always goes, and Potter, whose team are eighth in the Premier League, seven points behind fourth-placed Manchester United, will be under no illusions that his fate will always be directly linked to results on the pitch. Right now, the results are grim (two wins in seven, including four defeats) and with two games against Manchester City this week — in the Premier League and FA Cup — it could get much worse before it gets better.
When Potter arrived from Brighton as the successor to the sacked Thomas Tuchel in September, the Chelsea hierarchy, led by co-owner Boehly, sold him their vision of a new Chelsea. It was a club that would look to the long term and plan accordingly, which would embrace a more collegiate approach and allow the bright young coach time to impose his methods on the squad.
The old Chelsea of Roman Abramovich, which saw managers hired and fired as often as they won big trophies, had apparently been consigned to the past. But perhaps that idea was as naïve as Chelsea’s recruitment has been since the change of ownership. That naivety is now beginning to make Potter’s job so much harder. The 47-year-old is struggling to get a grip of the challenge of managing a club as big as Chelsea and he needs help, but he is not the only one learning on the job at Stamford Bridge.
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Boehly has overseen Chelsea’s player recruitment and the change of manager personally since taking control of the club in the summer, and even his biggest fan would struggle to suggest the team are…
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