West Ham United head coach Graham Potter has claimed that getting fired by Chelsea may have been “the best thing” for him given the lessons he learned from seven chaotic months in west London.
Potter was prised away from Brighton in September 2022, moving to Chelsea for a fee worth £20m – the second-most expensive managerial acquisition in football history at the time.
Lumbered with a youthful, expensively assembled squad so large there was not enough space for every player to have a seat in the dressing room, the incoming head coach struggled to harness the potential at his disposal. Inheriting a side which had finished third under Thomas Tuchel the previous season, Potter was dismissed in April 2023 with his side languishing in 11th.
“You know in a football life you’re going to get ups and downs,” West Ham’s freshly appointed boss noted this week. “I didn’t want to lose my job. But at the same time I look back now and maybe it’s the best thing that happened to me.
“Maybe the next 10-20 years is going to be great because of the experience I’ve had. I just look at it as a learning experience. I’ve got no bad feelings towards Chelsea, I’ve still got a lot of good relationships with the people there.”
Potter lost his West Ham debut to Aston Villa in the FA Cup third round and has taken four points from his three league games at the helm; defeating Fulham before losing to Crystal Palace while taking a point off Villa last weekend.
On Monday night, Potter will return to Stamford Bridge for the first time since he lost his last home match as Chelsea boss (also against Villa).
“I’m just looking forward to the journey I’m on now with West Ham at this great club and getting that connection with the supporters,” the 49-year-old beamed, “working with the team and building something that we’re really excited about and proud about here.”
Potter seems to have taken a leaf out of Malcolm Allison’s book. As the legendary former boss at Manchester City and Crystal Palace once memorably said: “You’re not really a manager until you’ve been sacked.”