Gundalf

Thats what I wrote on the 7th of september. Turns out, noone is patient 😂

Building means to implement a playing style, a system that can last longer than just 3 years before it needs to be changed, having the same manager for more than 6 years. Continuity is key to success in modern football. Hire and fire on the other hand turned out to be outdated. And yes, there was a slow but steady decline in the last few years, we literally have become Wengers Arsenal. When was the last time we were really challenging for the title over the season? We transformed from a club that is challenging for the title every year to challenging for Top4 every year, even with Tuchel. We became a P4 team. Managers like Mou or Conte just cant build bc after 2-3 years, they completely lose the dressing room with their training methods and approach. Same goes for Tuchel, who is also a short term manager wherever he has been. And it was clear at the end of last season and start of this season that he has clearly lost the dressing room again. What a club needs in modern football is stability, constant changes give u setbacks all the time preventing the club to reach for the highest goals. That is why I dont want a caretaker, if Potter is replaced, but someone who can build a legacy.

Bc most managers competence comes from having short term success before falling down the cliff. Most managers dont know how to build sth, they just squeeze everything out of the players before they get fed up. Conte, Mou, Tuchel, all of these.

British media about Ferguson when he finished 11th!!! with United in his first season in 1987 😂

But it shouldnt be. The manager should be tied to a playing style, not the other way round. Just look at Barcelona. No matter who is manager there, their style of play is the same. Because they have an identity, a system that gives them a structure and helps everyone, from academy player to new staff, to settle in quickly. Actually its not la masia that is so good, its the club philosophy that allows young players to come thru seamlessly. Also, Pep has implemented a club philosophy at City by now. U can be sure, when Pep leaves, that the new manager will have to adapt to the same style of play that Pep implemented. You wont see City go to counterattacking football after Pep. The club dictates the football identity and picks the manager that can follow it. Same goes for Bayern. The old DNA of hire and fire is just outdated. It doesnt work anymore. It worked 10 years ago, yes, new blood giving new vibes that boosts performances. That worked back in the day. Nowadays, successfull teams are teams that have a continuity, especially concerning the playing style.

Yes and its not a surprise, that the 2 clubs that dominated English football the last couple of years are teams that have their manager in place for a lot longer than that.

The only manager I would go for to replace Potter is Nagelsmann. Anyone else would just be a 2 year caretaker.

So what was the DNA? Just look at the coaches and the styles of play we had in the last couple of years. We had Conte, a very emotional manager who tried to motivate the players a lot from the sidelines and had a lot of passion - focussing on pressing and powerful counterattacking, prefering experienced players. Then we went on to Sarri, a rather calm but tactical guy, focussing on positional and combination play with a lot of possession. Then we went on to Lampard, a very inexperienced coach but young and hungry, new generation of coaches, club legend trying to have a bigger bond between manager and fans, trying to implement a lot of youth players. So 3 managers, 3 different types of personality, age and coaching style and 3 different philosophies of who and how to play on the pitch. Thats not a DNA.

When will this ever change??

Bc there are people who get personal and are questioning the fandom only bc some dont want the manager to be sacked after a few months. Thats also personal. Let me get it straight: I dont rate Potter as someone who can have a direct impact on a team, to instantly make a team better, there are a lot of coaches who are a lot better in this. Also at Brighton it took him 2 years to get fully going. (Brighton fans had the same discussions about him in his first year there). BUT I consider Potter as someone who can work well in a long term, implementing a philosophy, a structure, a DNA for the next decades. He may be a bad coach in terms of direct impact, but he can build a system. And I think this is what Boehly wants to achieve. No coincidence that Boehly initially wanted to hire Christoph Freund from RB Salzburg as well, as the Red Bull football teams have this kind of system, DNA, structure to perfection. Everyone, from the 10yo academy players to the senior team is on the same page. The system comes first, and every player that is bought, every new coach that is implemented has to follow this structure. And I think this is what Boehly and Potter want to achieve and build. Chelsea had so many different coaches over the last few years, everyone with their own philosophy, demands on transfer market and so on and tbf, this is a outdated view on football. Hire and fire is over. Over the last 15 years, Chelsea has lost its DNA. What is Chelsea FC, what does it stand for? What philosophy is there? When Potter was announced I literally said that I dont expect us to be any good for 2 years but that it will benefit us in the long term. And I still think it will.

Just patience fans who dont have a total meltdown when their club goes thru a tough period in the hope that continuity will help the club to be successful again. Definitely better than some plastic fans who think everything is about silverware and probably only became fan of the club bc it was winning stuff.

If it makes your life better to spend several hours per day moaning about Potter, then go for it. I for myself always want to support the people who are working for this club and just hope it gets better. I just chose not to be the grumpy old guy.

But it seems the booing is directed to the players, which it should be. Even without having a coach they should be able to perform a lot better. Players have to ask themselfs before they blame anyone else.

You can cry and moan all day long, but after all we are all irrelevant individuals on an irrelevant forum. Potter wont be sacked anytime soon bc Boehly sees this as a long term project. You can decide to moan about it every day, which wont change anything, or u can shut up and try to be constructive. Interestingly there havent been any big Potter out shouts within or around the stadium so far. Maybe the local fans just have a better feeling.

Arsenal will win it. City seems so weak this season. Haaland also with a big miss. Arsenal took advantage of that end of City-Liverpool dominance.

Go and cry spanish Trump 🤣😴

Cant blame him. Maybe there are a few in Liverpool tho. Get him there.

Cant play every game yet. Last time they rushed him and he immediately got injured again. So they are more careful this time.

I will give u some evidence. And the evidence is right there in this picture that was supposed to mock Potter: As you can see there, and as I mentioned a few days ago, it shows that our decline began under Tuchel, which was a heavy decline. The decline rate has basically been the same since Potter took over. So yes, Potter struggled hard to stop that decline that Tuchel started, BUT, as you can also see in the graph, we seem to have reached a kind of turning point recently, with xG FOR going up again by quite some margin and xG AIGAINST coming down quite a bit. So in my opinion, we should wait and see till the end of the season if this is just a coincidence, or if its maybe really a trend of improvement that will keep going over the next few games. So my suggestion is to watch this statistic till the end of the season and assess it. Bc IF this is the start of a turning point that keeps on going, it would be harmful to change manager and throw everything all over again in the middle of the season.

Somehow I want Potter to be sacked just to mock these people who really think that we instantly would be so much better under any new wannabe star coach. Ofc a Poch would transform Havertz into a goal scoring machine, Cucurella to an assist and dribble god and Mount to play the most deadliest thru balls a la Xavi. And Felix will smash goals in like Diego Costa. You love to see it. I will come back to you in 2 years and assess Potter then. And yes, he will still be here in 2 years. Some tough times for spoilt Chelsea fans (who forgot that we havent won the league for 6 years now with this hire and fire mentality)

Oh, so using win rate only is allowed if it fits your agenda, I see. And your argument is not valid. Its not important how his win rate was 2 years ago, what is important is a trend, and we have gotten worse and worse under Tuchel over time. To a point were we lost to fucking Zagreb. Our season wouldnt have been so different if we hadnt sacked Tuchel, this is obvious. His time was over, just like Mourinhos was in 2016.

Not only incompetent in the transfer market, also turned out to be incompetent in coaching. 37% win rate in his last 16 games for Chelsea. He started the decline.

Yeah, lets get tha Glazers in.