Is Potter the right fit for West Ham?

It has been 647 days since Graham Potter was sacked as Chelsea manager, and he’s been out of work since.

The former Brighton boss will succeed him as West Ham manager after having been linked with a number of top positions during this time.

Potter has applied for positions at Ajax, Leicester City, and Sweden in addition to the summer job that the England manager has held.

Although he only served as Chelsea’s manager for seven months, he acknowledged that his dismissal “hurt a lot” and that his stock has remained high.

The 49-year-old stated in a number of recent media interviews that he was “ready” to play football but that the position “still has to be the right thing.”

After leading Swedish fourth-tier side Ostersunds FK to three promotions in five seasons as a manager, Potter, a former defender at clubs like Birmingham, Stoke, and West Brom, established himself as a manager. His seven-year spell also included a first major trophy with the Swedish Cup and a spot in the Europa League, where they famously beat Arsenal 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium, but lost the last-32 tie 4-2 on aggregate.

Before joining Chelsea in 2022, he chose an unconventional route for an English manager, but it led to Swansea in 2018 and Brighton a year later.

Amid links to Tottenham and Everton jobs in the past, Potter said he will never be thought of as a “sexy” coach, saying: “It is hard to be a sexy name when you are called Potter, especially if your first name is Graham. Then it becomes even more difficult. Add that to my long, ginger-beard, and other requirements for being a football coach and working with the players.

Potter, who is frequently referred to as a kind and compassionate coach, was in charge of making Brighton one of the game’s most exciting prospects, changing the team from a consistently relegation-threatened side to a more adventurous Premier League team.

Former Seagulls forward Glenn Murray played under him and said Potter was a “thought-provoking manager” who “meticulously studies every opponent”.

“He knows exactly what he wants, but he wants feedback from the players. It’s a collective rather than a dictatorship”, added Murray.

We were a team in the Premier League that was in survival mode, which was something that really struck me about him, and he probably doesn’t get enough credit for.

He succeeded in altering both the play’s culture and play’s aesthetic. That’s not an easy thing to do while remaining stable. “

Murray said Potter’s style was “fluid” and he was not opposed to making changes to formation or tactics during a game despite the emphasis on tactically dogmatic coaches like Ange Postecoglou and Ruben Amorim.

We would change formations two or three times in a single afternoon when we were playing under him, which is quite a skill to have your players understand everything they want from them and be able to change in-game, he admitted.

Although Potter left the Amex after finishing sixth in the Premier League under Roberto de Zerbi, Brighton have since accomplished bigger things. According to sources at the Seagulls, the Italian manager benefited enormously from the work he had done while in charge.

In September of that year, Potter had just led Brighton to a ninth-place finish, the club’s highest position in the top flight at the time.

Under new ownership, with an ever-expanding squad and a long-term contract-strategy, his ability to get the best out of young players and appeal to a Blues side.

However, Potter felt pressure and the weight of expectation right away as the dressing room was packed.

He claimed that the “conditions were challenging” as the new owners “made extensive changes” in an interview with the High Performance Podcast in November of last year.

” If you change 20-30 players in three transfer windows, the instability of that is hard to deal with, “added Potter.

“It wasn’t that I couldn’t do it, but sometimes there’s collateral damage if you go in and change a location with a sledgehammer that quickly.” I was a bit of collateral damage. “

With 14 matches in his first six weeks in charge of the Premier League and Champions League, Potter claimed he felt “thrown in at the deep end.”

” It was an overload situation for me, “he explained”. One of my mistakes is to give myself some time to plan and train if you are going to set up.

“Maybe I made the wrong choice, but Chelsea and the owners were discussing how to build a young team that could compete at the top end. I had discussed Chelsea being able to host many of the things I did there.

” We weren’t winning as much and the obvious answer was the coach isn’t good enough. I thought I was written off fairly quickly because of this.

Potter won’t have to balance the demands of European football at West Ham, but he would be joining the club midway through the season, which could present challenges with the opening of the January transfer window and potential comings and goings.

Before considering a return to the game, Potter acknowledged that he had to deal with his feelings of “abortion, frustration, and sadness” about his Chelsea spell.

Under previous manager David Moyes, West Ham have enjoyed success in recent years, winning the Europa Conference League from 2022 to 2023 and competing in the Europa League from the same year.

There was a feeling that Moyes’ time at the London Stadium had expired and that fans were calling for a more progressive style, even though his exit at the end of last season seemed unusual from the outside.

It’s not an easy place to manage, according to Harry Redknapp, who was previously at Hammersmith. Whoever goes there must produce a team that plays the way West Ham supporters do, not just producing a winning team.

But Murray, who also played for Crystal Palace, Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest, felt West Ham was a” good fit “for Potter if given the time to implement his own philosophies.

” They want a better brand of football to be played at the London Stadium, and I think he’ll be able to deliver that, “he said.

Potter has a juggling style with substance, Murray added, and “entertaining football” doesn’t just come overnight.

In the Premier League era, West Ham managers have been given an average of 32 months in charge – or just over two-and-a-half years. That is longer than Newcastle, Everton, Tottenham and Aston Villa.

Potter had already received other offers since leaving Chelsea, according to sources familiar with the situation, but given the stable ownership and track record of allowing managers to take their time, he had chosen West Ham.

West Ham are currently 14th in the table, seven points off the drop zone.

Outside of the promoted teams, they have the worst defensive record, and they concede goals at the same rate as they did last year, at 1.95 per game.

They are, however, scoring fewer goals than last term too, with a rate of 1.2 per game compared to 1.58 last season.

A turnaround in form could allow them to resurrect their success from previous campaigns and secure themselves a spot in European competition despite their ninth-place finish in last year’s Premier League, which meant they did not qualify for Europe.

” It’s a very attractive job, “said Murray”. They have shown a desire to advance, and West Ham has it covered in every way.

“Everything is prepared for a charge on the top six, and that fanbase anticipates that, fighting in those European places and entering intense competitions.”

According to sources, West Ham technical director Tim Steidten and club boss David Moyes split last season, leading to widespread speculation that Lopetegui would leave his position.

How Potter fits into the organization’s current hierarchy is still to be seen.

Sean Whetstone, a West Ham fan and podcaster, said, “I don’t think Potter is the first choice for most West Ham fans, just like Lopetegui wasn’t the first choice.” The recruitment strategy employed by Tony Bloom and Dan Ashworth at Brighton, according to critics, surprised Potter. It didn’t work at Chelsea and what has he done elsewhere?

“That’s why I believe there was some trepidation and talk of a short-term contract up until the season’s end.

“I think some fans are turning against Steidten. He spent a lot of money on Brazilian winger Luis Guilherme, a player who hasn’t come up to spec. ]West Ham vice-chair] Karren Brady has led the push for Potter all the way. Let’s see if he lasts the two-and-a-half years or if he feels he’s ripe for a bigger club.