Graham Potter brought several Brighton assistants with him to Chelsea — here (from left to right) Bjorn Hamberg, Billy Reid and Bruno Saltor Photo: Getty Images/Robin Jones
When Chelsea lost to Brighton in October, five members of the visiting team sat on the home benches at the Amex Stadium two months earlier, and spectators were not shy about expressing their opinions. believe that it was all a betrayal.
In addition to Graham Potter, his assistants Billy Reid, Bjorn Hamberg, Bruno Saltor and goalkeeping coach Ben Roberts wore Chelsea tracksuits. Elsewhere, Potter's recruiting assistant Kyle Macaulay, also a former Brightonian, moved to Chelsea. Separate from Potter and the staff was another Brighton chief executive, now Chelsea sporting director Paul Winstanley, who had worked at Sussex before Potter and was independently appointed by the new consortium of Chelsea owners.
Brighton came to Stamford Bridge for the second leg on Saturday with big changes. Three of Potter's four managers, including Bruno, who took over at Liverpool, were not part of Frank Lampard's squad against Wolverhampton Wanderers last weekend. However, goaltending coach Ben Roberts coached the goaltenders before the match. Winstanley stays. It was he, along with Lawrence Stewart, his athletic director, who approved the decision to fire Potter.
The official departure of the Potter loyalists who followed him from Brighton has not yet been announced by the club. Among them, Macaulay is believed to be the only survivor. It is assumed that he continued to work after Potter's departure. Chelsea, under the leadership of Todd Boly and Behdad Egbali, have enthusiastically appointed recruiters, and another member of the squad will no doubt be attractive.
Chelsea also have RB Leipzig's technical director Christoph Wivell, who is tasked with looking further than Stewart and Winstanley. Joe Shields came from Southampton as the fourth recruiting director. They can still appoint another hiring manager and also keep Macaulay.
Three of Potter's four managers, including Bruno in charge of the Liverpool game, were not part of Frank Lampard's staff on the day of the match against Wolves last week. Photo: Reuters/Juan Medina
He has been part of the skyrocketing success of Brighton's recruitment in recent years. He joined Potter in Sweden with Ostersunds and later worked with him in Swansea. His skill lies in identifying talent — he was the one who wanted to hire Levi Colville and helped find the likes of Kaoru Mitoma. However, Macaulay's role must change if he wants to stay. He was the liaison between Potter and the recruiting team in Brighton and then Chelsea. It is unlikely that he will fill the same role as Potter's long-term successor.
Brighton's Chelsea experiment over? Even after four of Potter's managers are gone, Winstanley and Macaulay will remain graduates of the most dynamic Premier League club in years. The Boeli-Egbali consortium is looking to implement a stability model — according to Lampard's analysis at the club's training ground in Cobham on Friday — even as they continue Chelsea's old tradition of sacking managers.
«I went to Manchester City for the last year of my career [in England] and it really opened my eyes to a model other than Chelsea and that was great for me,» said Lampard. “Very different models. At Chelsea, in my playing days, the manager [position] changed a lot and, fortunately, we had a squad that managed to win a lot of trophies. When I look back, I feel disappointed that we didn't win more leagues… so there's always both sides.
“When I came to the City and joined the City [Football] Group before I went to New York [City], it just opened my eyes to a slightly different way of doing it. In terms of the vision, the setup, and how they were still working on something that seemed like a longer term [urgent] goal. Unlike Chelsea, who said: «Change it!». Result. «Change it!» Result. Both worked in their own way.”
Lampard noted that he believes «the owners are not copying any model» and that there will be a degree of improvement over time. He's focused on beating Brighton and then moving on to the next of the eight games he's left after Saturday, assuming there's no comeback against Real Madrid that would give him ninth and tenth places. As for the club, it has already abandoned most of the Brighton experiment, but clearly not everything.
Hiring so many technical staff is necessary not only for hiring, but also for inspecting the training facility and the medical department, as well as for training at the club. It feels like in some aspects Chelsea have created a very strong infrastructure, and in others it's the other way around. In addition, this season's performance was partly due to a legacy situation. Although it is difficult for the club to state this publicly when Thomas Tuchel's team was the winner of the Champions League and the FIFA Club World Cup in 2021, and then twice became the finalist of the national cup last year.
The team is built around elite players Rhys James, Wesley Fofan, Enzo Fernandez, Mihail Mudrik and Benoît Badiashile, as well as RB Leipzig signing Christopher Nkunku this summer and returning tenant Colville. They should drastically cut the rest, and Lampard's impassioned defense of Mason Mount suggests he doesn't think the homegrown Englishman should be in this summer sale.
Frank Lampard passionately defends Mason Mount
However, there is now recognition that change will take time. The benefits of a reliable working model are nowhere more evident than in Brighton's smooth transition from Potter to Roberto De Zerby.
Lampard was asked if the problem is that Brighton can give the manager time that Chelsea can't? ? Potter has been exempted from 10 winless games at Amex, which would be considered unacceptable at Chelsea.
«All managerial positions have their problems,» Lampard said, «and anyone who looks at Graham's time in Brighton would say «Brilliant». Now I'm guessing, but running three clubs [by myself] if you sit Graham down and say, «That looked great.» He said, «Yes, but it was difficult, and it was difficult.» You're working within the set parameters.”
You only need to look at the number of layoffs this season, Lampard said, to see how high the expectations were placed on managers. “There are a lot of really good managers who have left clubs and will come back and succeed. and for what it's worth, I think Graham is one of them.»
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