Why Graham Potter chose West Ham for his second coming and what he has learned from his damaging seven months in the Chelsea ‘washing machine’

One of the low points of Graham Potter’s short time at Chelsea came when someone from outside the football department tried to tell him which team to pick for an important home game. At West Ham he will undoubtedly hope that it will not be the case.

Potter has taken his time to return to football – April marks two years since he was sacked by Chelsea – and has opted for another London club where ambition and expectations are high and lines of command can become blurred.

From the outside, Potter and West Ham don’t exactly look like a match made in football heaven. Potter preaches and values ​​long-term thinking, a coach who measures progress and improvement step by step. West Ham always seem to be in a hurry to get somewhere and when they don’t, the frustrations and anxieties grow at the same pace.

But much of what happens once Potter is confirmed as Julen Lopetegui’s replacement will depend on which version of the 49-year-old has emerged from his damaging and traumatic seven months at Stamford Bridge.

The Potter we knew at Brighton was forward-thinking and smart, a clever in-game tactician who improved players, showed them how to beat big names and changed a playing style from pragmatic to brutal.

At Chelsea it was different. There were mitigating factors in west London. A damaging injury list, an owner who promised him time but didn’t give it and a transfer policy over which he had little control. Remember that crazy January of 2023 when Chelsea spent £300 million? Potter says he advised the club against it, but they did it anyway.

Potter has called time to return to management after a damaging seven months at Chelsea

Potter was not given the time that Chelsea’s owners had promised and was faced with a bloated squad

Nevertheless, Potter was ultimately not put in charge at Chelsea. His players liked him, but didn’t always respect him. Some of them called him ‘Harry’ (Potter) behind his back. When faced with a squad of more than thirty players, he struggled to manage them. Enzo Maresca has now shown that this is possible.

And the extent to which this shaped, improved or damaged Potter will probably be most important now. It’s no coincidence that it took him so long to return to the game. The Chelsea experience marked his first failure as a manager and it took him a long time to recover.

Talks with Leicester, Nottingham Forest and Wolves at various stages yielded no results. He wasn’t sure, and certainly as far as the last two were concerned, neither were they. And the backdrop to much of it is that of a man trying to deal with what he described as the “anger, bitterness, frustration and sadness” of being lured in and then spit out by a major football club.

In a recent podcast interview with Jake Humphrey, Potter talked about being human again and reconnecting with his children. He previously told Mail Sport how difficult it was for his young son when Potter moved from Sweden to take the Swansea job in the summer of 2018.

From then on, his family guided his career decisions and it is perhaps no coincidence that he has now taken up a new post in London, within shooting distance of his home on the south coast.

Failure – perceived or real – changes football managers and it will be interesting to see how Potter begins his second coming. There is a danger that he has overanalyzed his experiences at Chelsea. He admits that he asked himself a number of investigative questions and had professional help.

Potter remains a talented and innovative coach, a driver of good cultures and someone committed to creating pathways for young players. West Ham could certainly do with a dose of all that, but they will also demand results quickly. When he arrived at Brighton in May 2019, owner Tony Bloom gave him three years to get the club where it needed to be. He doesn’t get that time in East London. Not a bit of it.

Potter has described his time at Chelsea as being like being in a washing machine and there is no reason to suggest an experience at West Ham will be any different. Both Lopetegui and his predecessor David Moyes have had to deal with chain of command issues with football director Tim Steidten and that will be an early line in the sand that the new manager may want to draw.

Potter showed he is an innovative coach at Brighton, but West Ham will want quick results

West Ham have a team that lacks balance and is currently without captain Jarrod Bowen

There is talent in West Ham’s squad, but it is unclear how hard they are willing to work

West Ham wanted Potter until the end of the season, which does not show long-term thinking

West Ham also have an unbalanced squad with captain Jarrod Bowen missing due to a serious injury. Another striker, Michail Antonio, is recovering from a car accident, while another big player, Niclas Fullkrug, has also failed to make an impact since his arrival last summer.

There is talent in West Ham’s selection, but there is also drive. Players like Mohammed Kudus and Lucas Paqueta have capabilities that run deep, but how hard are they willing to work? Potter must have seen the video footage, just like us.

At Brighton, Potter has undoubtedly benefited from Bloom’s clever data-driven recruitment model. His side that started the 2022/23 season with a win at Manchester United featured Moises Caicedo, Alexis MacAllister, Leandro Trossard and Robert Sanchez. That quartet cost a total of £25 million. Suffice to say, West Ham’s recent reputation in the market has been rather different.

Potter’s return to management therefore raises question marks. West Ham’s opening match was intended to propose terms until the end of the season. Not much long-term planning to be seen there.

We should be thankful that Potter is heading back to work. We need British coaches in the Premier League and he is one of our best. Yet he told the Humphrey podcast that all a manager can wish for is a ‘good club with good leadership’.

If we hope to see the best face of Graham Potter again, we should also hope for the same from West Ham.