Potter’s Chelsea are the most expensive technical shipwreck in modern football

There are plenty of numbers. Those of the transfer market, first of all: in the Boehly era, from last May to today, Chelsea has spent over 600 million euros. The whole of Serie A, in the same period, put 750 on the plate (but in the last winter session the Blues were the big winners: 330 to 32). Then there are those in the field. Take your pick: today Chelsea are tenth in the standings, at -11 from the Champions area and with one foot outside the current edition. Before the tiring 1-0 against Leeds this Saturday, in the last fifteen days they boasted the worst attack in the Premier League (8 goals) and the fewest number of wins (2) tied with Bournemouth. For the stadiums of England it’s time for mocking comparisons, but of brutal realism, such as the data that sees Marcus Rashford, Manchester United striker, capable of scoring three times (18 goals to 6) of Graham Potter’s entire team from November onwards. Enough, they say in London. A few days ago, on the Change.org portal, fans launched a petition asking the club to exonerate the coach: the almost 50,000 signatures collected exceed the capacity of Stamford Bridge.

To underline it is even self-evident. This is the worst season for the Blues since the 1990s, when there was still no trace of the cycle of victories achieved by the Abramovich presidency. The latest are around the corner – not even two springs ago Thomas Tuchel’s boys were crowned European champions – yet they already seem very far away. In September, the new ownership kicked out the German, perhaps too hastily. He was looking for a new, fresh imprint, capable of marrying the company’s ambitious relaunch. The choice thus fell on the young Potter, the architect of a great job at Brighton and from there snatched millions (23, and you thought), from the Premier already begun. But as often happens, the technical revolution announced with great fanfare proved to be a shipwreck.

In England, the parable is somewhat reminiscent of David Moyes at Manchester United almost a decade ago. Even then he was a coach on the launch pad, fresh from excellent results leading an average team (in that case two fifth places with Everton): for the leaders of the Red Devils, the ideal profile after Ferguson. Nothing more wrong, with United finishing seventh in the Premier League (worst result since 1990) and Moyes sacked after 34 matches (consolation prize, Community Shield win). Also in Manchester, on the City side, they still bitterly recall the third season with Manuel Pellegrini at the helm: 2015, a pharaonic transfer campaign (De Bruyne, Otamendi, Sterling arrive: 200 million expenses that keep up with today’s Chelsea) and acclaimed aims of continental triumph. Where in fact the team does well (semifinals), however risking not qualifying for the next edition. The play-offs will be needed, won with Guardiola on the bench.

Another round, another race between the balloon scrooges. In Paris in 2017, the Qatari sheikhs made more or less the same promises as their UAE colleagues at City: it’s the right time to triumph in the Champions League. And in fact buying Neymar and Mbappé in one fell swoop tastes like an impressive business card. That Paris Saint-Germain wins everything, in France. But in Europe he hits Real Madrid badly and goes out in the round of 16: the person responsible for the failure is identified in the coach Unai Emery, enlisted two seasons earlier precisely to give the team an international dimension (even there, impeccable credentials: in Seville he had just won three Europa Leagues in a row). We fly to Spain, where Ernesto Valverde is still the last strategist to have led Barcelona to conquer La Liga. But the three-year period 2017-2020 is also the prelude to the financial disaster that would soon emerge. With the complicity of the general manager José Segura, the Blaugranas put 700 million on the market (half for a flop trio: Dembélé, Coutinho, Griezmann) and collect crumbs compared to Real’s rivals who dominate in the Champions League. The ending was nightmarish: in January 2020 Valverde was sacked, in August the substitute Setién lost 2-8 against Bayern. The price to pay will be Messi’s farewell.

And in Italy? Let’s limit ourselves to the stories in the big three. Those of Maurizio Sarri and Marco Giampaolo are still fresh: they both arrived in 2019, at Juve and at Milan, to bring a breath of fresh air, almost irreverent, to the technical project and identity of their respective clubs (who knows what the Avvocato Agnelli, of a coach in a sweatshirt). A failed experiment, albeit with opposite paths: one won the Scudetto, the other did not get to the panettone. Same teams and time jump. Do you remember Gigi Maifredi, who had to import champagne football to Turin? Lost on the way to Villar Perosa, where in 1990/91, despite the blow of the summer (Roberto Baggio from Fiorentina), his bianconeri finished seventh in Serie A. For Milan fans, however, honorary titles do not evoke great joy: both the ‘maestro ‘ Tabarez and ‘the emperor’ Terim were exonerated after about ten days (1996 and 2001), and goodbye to the intriguing exotic premises. We close with Marco Tardelli, who returned to Inter in 2000 with the aura of the Under-21 European champion coach: he finished with an anonymous fifth place and a 0-6 draw in the derby.

Still, all of them had better numbers than Potter. Chelsea’s exceptional patience has been a matter of pride so far. But it may have come to an end, with Zidane and Luis Enrique at attention. The next matches will be decisive – don’t be deceived by having beaten the modest Leeds -, starting with the European one against Borussia Dortmund. Meanwhile, the coach has announced that he has received “death threats against me and my children”. Imbeciles aside, some stories simply better end.