Humiliated by Chelsea: Is it time for Potter’s next Payout?
24th August 2025
Our beloved West Ham truly are a hard club to support. Like any club, we’ve seen highs and lows - but with the wealth of football knowledge embedded into our fanbase, watching our historic club sleepwalk into a relegation battle is becoming equal amounts infuriating and sad. As if a 3-0 loss to Sunderland wasn’t bad enough, we’ve now endured a 5-1 thrashing to Chelsea. So how bad can it get? Well it looks like this season we’re likely to find out.
I think most true fans know that we’re run like a circus. You’ll never get complete agreement amongst the fan base, but what’s undeniable is that the day to day running of the club is poor at best. I can’t think of a worse run club. Maybe Everton and Forest who both in recent years suffered points deductions for mismanagement off the pitch? Well one just moved into a purpose built stadium and is spending big on strengthening their squad and the other qualified for Europe despite their somewhat maniacal owner, Evangelos Marinakis. Maybe Wolves, who cut it close with PSR? Or Newcastle who can’t seem to attract signings this season. I’d imagine after the turmoil of Mike Ashley, a recent trophy win and a season of Champions League football to look forward to, the toon army are more than prepared to accept a season of uncertainty knowing that they’re at least secure in the league and will play some good football.
In the past you could claim the likes of Chelsea and Villa even had to get creative to avoid breaching PSR, but one may argue that flying close to the sun is a sign of ambition and a willingness to use some creative accounting to keep a club flying high is actually what constitutes a board doing their job. Add to that, Chelsea just won the club world cup and you could make a case that their questionable operating model has been something of a masterstroke.
Football’s a funny game. If you look back to the start of the Todd Boehly takeover at Chelsea, one of the first cogs in that new machine, albeit very briefly, was Graham Potter. He was appointed to replace Thomas Tuchel in September 2022 with Chelsea paying £21.5m to sign Potter (and his staff) from Brighton and handing him a 5-year deal worth £10m a year. He was then sacked 7 months later whilst continuing to pick up £200k a week in wages for a further 18 months.
To keep it simple, let’s even it out to two years total and he managed to earn somewhere in the region of £20.8m in wages for a seven month stint. That’s not bad going is it?
In total, Chelsea threw north of £40m down the drain. Notably, that amount would have been reduced if Potter had found a new job during that time, but in a display of pragmatism that even the likes of Gareth Southgate would envy to achieve, Potter waited until his final payment was processed to then take on a new role. He turned down offers until he was paid every penny owed to him and took the time to weigh up his options. And this part is quite important. As I’ve stated above, we’re known to be a poorly run club. It’s plain for even an un-researched football fan to see. After his turmoil with a “difficult” owner at Stamford Bridge, I have no doubt that a studiously natured Potter would’ve done his homework on the background of each club that offered him a job. Five minutes on wikipedia will tell you all need to know about the character of David Sullivan, let alone his general reputation within the football landscape that Potter had been immersed in for years. Let’s be under no illusion - Graham Potter knew exactly what he was signing up for.
Potter left Chelsea in April 2023 and just over two years later, Enzo Maresca led them to a club world cup triumph. The task of transforming a squad of high quality players into a recognisable team proved too difficult for Potter, but Maresca went on to show it could be done. Could Potter have achieved the same were he given more time? That’s something we’ll never know. But during his short tenure, we saw a man under pressure who struggled to maintain composure, snapping at reporters and not hiding the stress that he was clearly under. Yes, being a football manager is obviously a highly stressful job and it seems more common now for managers to bite back and defend themselves. Just look at Ange mate! But these snappy episodes tend to align with a manager knowing that their time at the club is probably soon to end.
Another observation from his spell at Chelsea seemed to be that Potter struggled to manage high profile players. They had an oversized squad with immense individual talent but a lack of cohesion, but Potter failed to establish a core team of players that could gel, the very problem that he was brought in to solve. There were reports at the time that the squad didn’t respect him, with players frustrated with his tactics and team selection - a key theme being confusion. He seemed insecure in his lack of achievement compared to previous managers and players and that permeated amongst the squad, in that he couldn’t properly get his message across.
For a man with a masters degree focused on Leadership & Emotional Intelligence, it seems the book-smarts didn’t quite translate into an application of that knowledge. Now, I wouldn’t be so snide in my assessment of the man were it not for the level of vitriol he displays in press conferences. For a clearly intelligent bloke who was paid a pretty penny to sit around for over a year, I expected a rejuvenated and possibly reflective character to emerge - one that had pondered his short-lived Chelsea spell, wisened as a result and ready to apply these learnings in a new role. But in reality, it seems the opposite has occurred.
Has he learned from his previous arguments with journalists? Apparently not. He responds with disdain and a facial expression of disgust to every third question at a press conference, often staring journalists in the face as if to intimidate them into retreat. But not in the charismatic style of a Mourinho or Guardiola - it’s more reminiscent of a power tripping parking inspector. Sucking in air and screwing up his face, bemoaning the fact he has to repeat himself. There’s an undertone of bitterness for past criticisms that seems to follow him into every interview, ready to strike back at the first sign of adversity. He’s on edge and it does the opposite to invoking a sense of control.
I didn’t think it was possible to watch a manager make a press conference more uncomfortable than Moyes or Southgate, but this bloke surpasses them with ease. It’s honestly painful to watch. I mean it must be a tough to go through but unfortunately it’s part of the job and surely a man well read in psychology understands that his is not the most endearing approach to conversation. Important to note is the fact that his first real outburst as West Ham manager came in April after a loss to Brighton - less than four months into the role he looked a broken man. A media darling he clearly is not - which is a shame because as the pressure piles on, being able to maintain that likeability as a person would probably do him the world of good.
Well, maybe his extended leave after the Chelsea sacking allowed him to refine his approach to man-management, one of his key skills according to Lady Brady - hmmmm, afraid not.
Mohammed Kudus was shown the door and in fairness to Potter that seems to have been beyond his control. But it’s equally fair to assert that he failed to get a tune out of him since taking over last season. In fact, it’s hard to pick a player who’s improved under Potter. For a man-manager, who specialises in emotional intelligence, he can’t seem to unlock that extra 10% in any of them, rather it seems they’re continuing to regress. It’s all well and good to talk about psychology and motivation but doing so doesn’t make you Tony Robbins. Recognising a need for motivation and being able to motivate are two different things. I fear we have a talker and not a doer on our hands in that department.
And now Alvarez has officially left the club on loan - a top talent but one who seemingly undermines Potter’s ability to control the dressing room. I suppose the type of player that can lead on the pitch is viewed by Potter as a liability - someone that may challenge his authority and could potentially provoke a mutiny. Potter’s stance when it comes to dealing with strong characters was demonstrated last season, when Niclas Fullkrug’s honest criticism after a poor result saw him left on the bench for the next game, whilst many fans rejoiced at his passion and would’ve preferred he be made captain.
We now have a team with no leaders and a lack of energy in midfield and the grand plan apparently involves loaning out the £35m replacement for Declan Rice and our only first team quality defensive midfielder. The versatile Mexican can double as a centre back when needed and captains his country - most recently to a Concacaf Gold Cup win, scoring the winning goal in the final and being named player of the tournament. But to Potter, he’s a liability.
The preferred option is James Ward Prowse. The former Southampton captain joined the Hammers in 2023, as a player David Moyes had admired for years - a tidy midfielder sure, but as is often the case at West Ham, a signing that may have been a tad more exciting 3-4 years earlier. At the time, Moyes opposed our new sporting director Tim Steidten who was seeking better value alternatives and in true Sullivan fashion, they got a player each. Moyes got JWP and Steidten signed Alvarez. With Moyes gone, JWP was loaned out to Nottingham Forest but returned within six months, after struggling to make it into their squad. He proved too slow and lacked a cutting edge going forward. So back to the London stadium he came, where he’s been allowed to take too many touches and play sideways passes to his heart’s content ever since. For some reason, he’s a mainstay in Potter’s squad and I get the sense it’s because he doesn’t talk back or challenge the managers plan.
As West Ham fans, we’re not opposed to “tidy” players - they have their place. We watched for years as Mark Noble flourished and at times frustrated, but always with a grit and understanding of the heart and soul of the club. In spite of any bad performances, you could never accuse Noble of throwing in the towel. Watching us lose 5-1 to Chelsea, I’m sure I wasn’t alone in wishing that someone - anyone -would have gotten stuck in and taken a booking in an attempt to breathe some life into that game. Alvarez would’ve done exactly that, but alas, he’s no longer an option.
It’s worth mentioning that in spite of our lack of perceived leadership amongst the squad, our lineup against Chelsea featured four captains with Kilman (Wolves), Soucek (Czech Replublic) and Ward-Prowse (Southampton) lining up alongside Bowen. That’s not taking into account that Paqueta has captained both Flamengo and the Brazil national team on a temporary basis. Potter can’t blame youth or inexperience for the lack of character in the squad right now. Except for 20 year old Diouf, Potter picked an experienced starting eleven, so any lack of leadership in my opinion is based on him picking the wrong players, or wrong captain. Many fans would call for Fulkrug to be given the armband, after all he led the huddle before kick-off. But low and behold, he was withdrawn at half time - I’ll assume he spoke too loudly in the dressing room and refused to put a pound coin in Potters swear jar. Let’s hope the rumours aren’t true that we’re trying to ship him out on loan as well….
Either way, without Alvarez we have Soucek and Rodriguez left as central midfield options. I can’t expand on that other than to say that they lack any pace or real tenacity. I mean sure, there’s a perfectly fit Freddie Potts available who is likely the closest replica to a Mark Noble that we have at the club, but he was left on the bench for our opening game against Sunderland. If he’s not deemed strong enough to start against a promoted championship team, bearing in mind he was a mainstay holding midfielder in the same league last season and our most impressive player in pre-season, what’s the honest likelihood that Potter is gonna admit his team selection errors and move forward with the 21 year old? I’m not holding my breath.
So where does this all leave us? Well the answer is, in a relegation battle. I’ll accept it’s hard to predict a season's outcome after only two games. But you can make more educated guesses after 20 or so and that’s the data we have available when it comes to Potter. He has just five wins in 20 Premier League games and is averaging one point per game. For a 38 game season on that average we’d end with 38 points. Bearing in mind we’ve been relegated on 42 points in the past, that stat doesn’t read well at all.
At this moment in time it’s hard to choose three worse teams than us. You could speculate Burnley, Brentford, maybe Wolves. Let’s be real, it’s hard to argue that the likes of Sunderland and Leeds have weaker squads and managers than us with the way we’re being managed right now. I really do think we’re in trouble. And for Potter to be this negative, so early in the season is possibly the most worrying aspect. We’re bad right now. Really bad. And with nine days left in the window, no player is going to come in and immediately fix this. Two comments from his post match press conference stand out to me. Firstly, when asked about finding solutions in the remainder of the transfer window, he emphasised a need to improve the players we already have. Sorry, but with no improvement for six months, including a full pre-season, it seems naive to think this is actually going to happen. Finally and most frighteningly was this quote: “the only solution I think, is that we have to stick together, we have to fight, we have to find a solution”. Shortly thereafter he became wide eyed and terse with the journo’s once again.
I mean, wow. It really is dire. Nothing screams, I have no plan quite like the words “the only solution is to find a solution”.
It reads like a David Brent quote and I suppose the appropriate response is to laugh. He too was an inspirational man-manager. Or so he thought….
