Favourites to become new Brighton manager as Graham Potter agrees to become Chelsea boss

The favourites to become new Brighton & Hove Albion manager is revealed as Graham Potter agrees to become Chelsea boss after holding talks.

Thomas Tuchel was sacked after Chelsea’s 1-0 defeat to Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday, and as the announcement was made, Brighton boss Graham Potter was at the Amex Stadium having the team photo.

Hours later, he was travelling to meet Chelsea owner Todd Boehly for talks on Wednesday; and now both sides have now reached an agreement for Potter to be in charge of the Blues.

talkSPORT report that Graham Potter wants to take assistant Billy Reid, coach Bjorn Hamburg & analyst Kyle Macaulay to Chelsea.

Potter spent two hours at Brighton’s training ground on Thursday, saying goodbyes.

Graham Potter will be appointed as new Chelsea manager, as expected. Agreement in place, contracts now being prepared as proposal has been accepted. Here we go. 🚨🔵 #CFC

Chelsea will complete the agreement with Brighton in the next hours. pic.twitter.com/cY7V5vdZy8

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) September 8, 2022

Those discussions continued early on Thursday morning, with the focus on the legal details of his contract and Potter’s backroom staff.

And while no contracts had been signed that morning, both sides have reached a verbal agreement about the ​47-year-old taking over at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea made it clear they were prepared to meet Brighton’s exit clause figure for Potter, a clear favourite from the start.

Mauricio Pochettino and Zinedine Zidane, who are both out of work, as well as Sporting in Lisbon manager Ruben Amorim were all also on Chelsea’s radar.

Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher said: “It’s a very ruthless club and I’m not sure [Graham Potter] is the right fit – maybe Chelsea are saying they want to do things differently in the future in terms of having a coach in charge rather than a manager or they do things behind the scenes differently. But if I was Graham Potter, I would find that very hard to believe that they’re going to do things differently. They’ve just got rid of a manager six games into the season.

“It’s a huge step up in his managerial career and Chelsea are still one of the top clubs. They are still world champions right now, but you fear for Graham Potter that he’ll be in the same boat as every other Chelsea manager has for the last 10 years – unless he gets results instantly they’ll be getting themselves another new manager in 12 months.”

BRIGHTON STATEMENT:

Time to take a look at the favourites to become new Brighton manager as Graham Potter agrees to become Chelsea boss…

(Sky Bet – 10:45am 08/09/2022)
Kjetil Knutsen – 5/1
Ange Postecoglou – 6/1
Brendan Rodgers – 7/1
Bruno Saltor – 10/1
Nathan Jones – 10/1
Steve Cooper – 10/1
Karel Geraerts – 12/1
Russell Martin – 12/1
Scott Parker – 12/1
Maurico Pochettino – 14/1

(Sky Bet – 12pm 08/09/2022)
Kjetil Knutsen – 4/1
Steve Cooper – 6/1
Ryan Lowe – 8/1
Brendan Rodgers – 10/1
Russell Martin – 10/1 
Ange Postecoglou – 12/1
Nathan Jones – 12/1
Sean Dyche – 12/1
Bruno Saltor – 14/1
Scott Parker – 14/1

(Sky Bet – 2pm 08/09/2022)
Kjetil Knutsen – 7/2
Steve Cooper – 5/1
Nathan Jones – 8/1
Russell Martin – 10/1
Sean Dyche – 10/1
Ange Postecoglou – 12/1
Brendan Rodgers – 12/1
Ruben Amorim – 12/1
Scott Parker – 12/1
Bruno Saltor – 14/1

(Sky Bet – 4:30pm 08/09/2022)
Kjetil Knutsen – 7/2
Steve Cooper – 4/1
Nathan Jones – 8/1
Brendan Rodgers – 10/1
Ange Postecoglou – 12/1
Bruno Saltor – 14/1
Russell Martin – 14/1
Sean Dyche – 14/1
Felice Mazzu – 16/1
Karel Geraerts – 16/1

Fellow coach and former Chelsea midfielder, Steve Sidwell, explained why Potter is ready to make the step up.

Speaking of the mental side of his management, Sidwell explained: “It’s more on a confidence level, a trust. He listens to his players, and the players trust the process as well.

“His emotional intelligence is by far the best I’ve ever seen in terms of his reaction and interaction with players.

“His tactical awareness in the game and the way his teams set up is phenomenal as well. I think all round, a coach, and as a person, he fits the bill.

“The emotional intelligence that he has In terms of coaching-wise, but also that little arm around the shoulder, that little walk from the training ground out to the pitches, the golden nuggets, the little sprinkles that he just drops. He just picks players up.

“I spoke to Adam Lallana and Danny Welbeck the other day after the Leicester game, they just raved about him. They said their workload, trusting the process, the days off, it just picks players up. It makes the players trust the manager. And when you’re confident as a player, you feel like you can go out and do anything.”

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 “Something as rare as an English boss get a top 6 job… you can’t blame him.”

👏 “Graham Potter’s earned his stripes at #BHAFC to take the next step up.”

Simon Jordan believes Graham Potter had to accept the #CFC job! ✅ pic.twitter.com/RGPZIlculY

— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) September 8, 2022

Sidwell thinks Potter will have to be careful.

“It’s literally all about winning,” he explained. “That is what Chelsea is all about. It’s all about winning titles, winning games week in, week out.

“He hasn’t got that pressure on his head from the owners at Brighton, although he would demand that of himself to win games week in, week out.

“He’ll feel the pressure and when you feel the pressure, you might make decisions that you may normally not make in a more comfortable environment.

“If he does go there, he’s gonna get tested. He will get tested to the point where he’s spinning probably more plates currently than what he’s doing.

“You look at his job at Brighton and it’s all aligned at Brighton. You’ve got Tony Bloom, fantastic owner, Paul Barber below him, Dan Ashworth, when he was there, the recruitment.

“That left Potts to really concentrate and do his coaching and just concentrate on preparing for games.

“Now is going to Chelsea where you have to say at the moment it’s not aligned, from the owners down technical directors, football directors, the recruitment, even the academies are a different kettle fish.”

FAN REACTION

@AngolanGeordie: There is no loyalty in football, be it player, manager or coach. Agents are the scurge. Potter has ambitions so who can really blame him. Msm say he has no CL experience, did Mourinho have any when he started? Sad for #BHAFC fans let down. Klopp will go now, #CFC have a new boss.

@halftimepies: Actually feel for #bhafc today, proper club run well lost their manager to a club who two decades ago were pretty average themselves and only built on spurious Oil oligarchs money, the crazy world of football!

@DJMarkBurrows: Interesting #potter to #CFC . You see every #bhafc game; every player is bought into potter, the system & plan. brilliant manager but can’t see those CFC players doing what he wants; too big egos & players who want the glory without really hard work. Cant blame him #bbcfootball

@ImNobbyPingPong: Although feeling a little bitter about Potter’s decision, have to thank him for his time with us. We’re miles better off from the dross we were churning out before he arrived. Need to have faith the board will pick the right person to continue this journey! #bhafc

@connorbhafc: Graham Potter goes leaving us in a much better position than when he joined. He’s changed the style of play, our philosophy as a football club and gave us some amazing moments on the road. The timing is horrible and I wish him nothing but failure

@beardygull: If he’d left for the England job I’d have wished him well. Now? For Chelsea? Fuck him. Hope it quickly descends into a shit show. #bhafc

@SempleJnr: Knutsen? Bielsa? Tedesco? Plenty managers out there with an attack minded approach if Gio goes who will we end up with no doubt some boring defensive as fuck minded coach

@NigelTDyer: Give the job to Bruno. He will form a team of coaches. He knows the players, how we play, keep the continuity going. This may of been in place for when this happened. Always a gamble bringing new people in while within the season. #BHAFC

@blokefromthebn1: 5 of the last 6 #BHAFC managers have been good for the club, each building on the others foundations. Whilst gutted, I have no doubt that the next will do the same. We are a much more attractive proposition than in 2019. Keep the faith.

@joshbean1991: This one is a proper kick in the teeth, you can’t have a bad word to say about potter as he’s done so much for this team, it just leaves a bitter taste and disappointment, he could of made this season legendary, onwards and upwards, trust in Bloom #bhafc

@AliceMahalia: As sad and worried as I am about this; as a club we’ve been through so much more. We’ve nearly been relegated from the football league, we’ve been homeless. After that we’ve reached the Premier League and have the Amex. We’ve got to trust Uncle Tony – We’ll find a way #BHAFC

@dansfoss: 💔😢 absolutely devastated for our club, he took us to new heights and had us playing the best football in the 22yrs ive followed #bhafc but wish him all the best, give him time and he will do an absolutely fantastic job with Chelsea just like he has with every other club 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

My. Manager. #BHAFC 🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/0TzvucPYtu

— J⚽️E (@SayersBHAFC) September 8, 2022