Chelsea new manager LIVE: Graham Potter appointed as new head coach

Worth a look beyond the weekend and what Graham Potter’s first tasks will be when taking over, at least between now and the international break when he’ll have a couple of weeks to really put plans in place for the following months.

• 10 Sept: first game, away to Fulham
• 14 Sept: Champions League and first home game, vs Salzburg
• 18 Sept: First home Premier League game, vs Liverpool
• Into October: N’Golo Kante returns from injury early October if all goes to plan, while matches will quickly follow against Palace, AC Milan and Manchester United among others

When Brighton and Hove Albion were lost in the darkness of a seven-game winless slump last winter, with a horror run of fixtures on the horizon, Graham Potter stayed remarkably calm. He didn’t make his players run harder or train longer, or pick apart their mistakes. Instead he gathered them in a room to discuss how they were feeling, and how they could harness their failure.

“He always tries to speak with us about psychological things,” Brighton’s Argentine midfielder Alexis MacAllister said recently. “He tries to do meetings for us to think about situations… it’s something not every manager does.” Results had put Potter under pressure and some of his more unusual decisions were inviting scrutiny, but he never lost the respect of his dressing room and never allowed a spiral of negativity to take hold. They responded with successive wins away at Arsenal and Spurs, and lost only once more all season in a spell that further elevated his reputation.

It is an approach that has taken Potter’s coaching journey from the yawning Swedish tundra to the gilded streets of west London, as he prepares to take the Chelsea job. For all his tactical quirks and slick football, his ability to build unity is the backbone of his management. “Styles of play don’t make you win games,” Potter told The Coaches’ Voice. “The challenge is having players believe in it, how it works.”

Lawrence Ostlere breaks down what the Blues are getting by appointing Graham Potter:

BBC Sport’s Simon Stone notes that Potter is at his current club Brighton ahead of today’s training session.

There have been reports that the usual pre-match press conference has been cancelled, with the Seagulls facing a trip to Bournemouth on Saturday afternoon just after Chelsea face Fulham.

Graham Potter has verbally agreed to become Chelsea’s new head coach.

The 47-year-old will continue talks with Chelsea’s new owners, but is now expected to leave Brighton for Chelsea.

New Chelsea owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali are understood to have met a release fee in Potter’s Amex Stadium contract, with Brighton allowing the Blues to talk to their manager.

Potter should now become the first managerial appointment of Chelsea’s new era, with the ambitious US owners determined to install a manager at the Stamford Bridge helm for the long term.

More on the approaching appointment:

Ruben Amorim talks have indeed been held, says Evening Standard’s Nizaar Kinsella, but more with a view to the long-term future of the club rather than right now.

Another journalist with close Chelsea ties there who is also saying it’s done.

Potter-in-waiting will surely lead the Blues against Fulham this weekend.

Increasing numbers of reports say the deal is not far off done and paperwork is the main obstacle now.

The Telegraph’s Matt Law adds that the “verbal” agreement is there between club and boss, so we could see the search for Tuchel’s successor ended very quickly today.

Brighton will be well-compensated for this switch, especially if further coaching staff members follow Potter to London.

For all the talk of a new way at Chelsea, Thomas Tuchel ultimately fell victim to one of football’s oldest truths. He had lost authority over the players, so ended up losing his job. All of this came to a head in the dismal 1-0 defeat to Dinamo Zagreb, that again saw a Chelsea team that were a disconnected mess.

The new hierarchy made their first big managerial decision overnight, informing Tuchel in a face-to-face meeting on Wednesday morning. It was a move that was ironically far swifter than any by Roman Abramovich, but the concerns had been growing for months. They actually came from another irony, that leaves the club with a significant problem and a warning as to why a sporting director is imperative.

Tuchel had actually been entrusted with more power than any modern Chelsea coach. With all of the previous football hierarchy gone, right up to Marina Granovskaia, the German was the most senior football official at the club.

This created a situation where, in stark contrast to the Abramovich era, every transfer decision was run past him. He wasn’t given a single player he didn’t want. This meant he overruled some big deals, including Cristiano Ronaldo and Jules Kounde.

It also means Chelsea now have a new squad almost entirely shaped by a manager who isn’t there. That will lead to a disconnect, but that only follows on from the summer. This was where Tuchel’s future really became uncertain.

Miguel Delaney delves into the final weeks of the Tuchel era:

Probably worth noting that in spite of that Amorim news, betting is mostly suspended on Potter being the next Chelsea boss.

Who takes his place at Brighton is still very open, though. Here are the latest odds via Betfair:

Brendan Rodgers 9/2

Ange Postecoglou 5/1

Kjetil Knutsen 6/1

Karel Geraerts 6/1

Felice Mazzu 7/1

Thomas Frank 15/2

Nathan Jones 9/1

Here’s a new name in the frame - Sky Sports report that talks have been held with Ruben Amorim as well. The 37-year-old moved to Sporting CP in 2020 after impressing at Braga.

“Todd Boehly and Chelsea are doing due dilligence...they have approached the job with other options and they have discussed the job with the young Portuguese manager at Sporting in Lisbon, Ruben Amorim.

“Boehly has spoken directly with him and he’s on Chelsea’s radar. They are very impressed with the work he has been doing.”

The punditry world can sometimes offer pearls of wisdom and sometimes, well, it provides opinions which can be described in other ways.

Paul Merson picks former Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane, which you can make your own minds up on which side of the fence it falls.

“For me, the only one who ticks the box is Zinedine Zidane. He is a legend. Nobody is questioning him. He was one of the best players in the world and he has managed Real Madrid. He has managed top-drawer players. He is not a manager who wants to be around for five years and build a project, he just wants it now. He is not going to build a team. He wants a team that is full of superstars already. People will listen to him.”