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

ESPN and BT football journalist Julien Laurens says the deal is done and Potter will make the move.

But as he points out, that’s only the start of it: how will the new boss get this group of players on board, bigger names than he is used to who have claimed countless trophies and commanded massive transfer fees?

It’ll be very different to what Potter is used to.

It’s certainly Graham Potter’s to lose right now, you feel, with the Brighton boss seemingly having a free run at the hotseat at Stamford Bridge.

But that doesn’t guarantee he’ll take it - he has rejected the chance to move beforehand and is doubtless switched-on enough to seek some assurances about his role, who he’ll work with and future recruitment.

So who else are the possibilities to take over if Potter doesn’t trade the south coast for west London?

Jurgen Klopp has seen off five Chelsea managers, plus the odd caretaker, during his time at Liverpool, but it was only four when he surveyed Thomas Tuchel’s inheritance. “This Chelsea squad is a present and I am pretty sure Thomas sees it like that,” he said in January 2021.

A few weeks later, Chelsea won at Anfield; three months after that, they won the Champions League. Klopp might have excelled as the analyst but Tuchel proved himself the alchemist, taking a group who were ninth when Frank Lampard was sacked to continental glory.

Now it is Tuchel who has been sacked. He achieved at great speed but his reign unravelled similarly quickly. His successor may deem the squad he has bequeathed a gift; for Tuchel, it looked an expensive mess. Tuchel flourished with other managers’ players and failed with his own, albeit in a small sample size. Chelsea spent around £260million this summer to get worse; arguably, to descend into crisis inside seven games.

Wesley Fofana played two matches for Tuchel, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang one in their reunion, Denis Zakaria and Carney Chukwuemeka none after arriving. Raheem Sterling at least got seven, thought he spent some of the last in central midfield. Perhaps, in time, Tuchel’s recruits would have found roles and his buying would have produced a team that was definitively his own, but it looked like scattergun spending that brought self-inflicted wounds. Tuchel ended up fatally hurt.

Rich Jolly looks at how and why it all came to a crashing end for Tuchel:

Chelsea are in talks with Graham Potter over the Brighton and Hove Albion head coach replacing Thomas Tuchel, who was sacked on Wednesday.

The 47-year-old is naturally open to the discussion, and has a release clause in his contract. That clause also comes down with every year of his contract, but does contain a few variables, and isn’t as simple as a straight fee.

It is why, if a deal is struck, the likely fee would be £16m.

Brighton have granted Potter permission to speak to Chelsea as that is how they do business, and do not seek to stand in the way of conversations taking place.

Miguel Delaney’s update on the search: