When Graham Potter joined Chelsea management in 2022 summer, it was full of hype and expectation. Potter took over Chelsea with a profile that showed fantastic tactics and innovation at Brighton and built on a basis for developing young players. However, what was at one point a golden opportunity soon became a nightmare. As the board of the club showed their support for him with an outrageous spending spree in the January 2023 transfer window, leaving Potter to deal with the overcrowded squad and the series of new challenges.
The Overcrowded Squad At Stamford
After replacing Blues’s ex-boss Thomas Tuchel as Chelsea manager, Potter made an immediate impact. That year, the club spent a whopping £323 million on a number of high-profile signings for that transfer season. Among them were, of course, World Cup winner Enzo Fernandez, Ukrainian winger Mykhaylo Mudryk, and emerging talents like Benoit Badiashile and Noni Madueke. Not to forget the expensive loan deal with Joao Felix of Atletico Madrid at an astronomic price of £9.7 million for just six months.
Although such an approach toward building a squad may have been exciting for fans, it appeared to be a statement of intent. But reality was far from ideal in the Chelsea dressing room. The number of players that were newly added with such a large group of existing members, was described by Potter as “a difficult situation.”
Transfer Market Missteps: ‘Sit On The Floor’
In an interview, Graham Potter said that one shocking result of Chelsea’s bloated squad was that in team meetings, some of the players had to ‘sit on the floor’. “We tried to support it as best we could. But it left us with a challenge of a lot of players after January. And then they can’t go anywhere. A few of them just had to sit on the floor. It’s not ideal, of course.”
Try to imagine this: you are a manager with an entire squad to look after. The meetings got so packed that some of the players had no seats anymore. This is just a metaphor for the real issue with Potter: handling this heavy roster and keeping such high morale with everyone involved. This was really beyond a football manager’s description of the job. As his work already seems pretty demanding in times of overcrowded squads.
High Squad Size, Yet Low Performance From Chelsea
Modern-day football is a game of depth, where clubs operate in multiple competitions such as the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League. Injuries and exhaustion during such a long season are common. Therefore, the manager looks for lots of choices for rotation.
However, if a team is too full of players, especially first-team abilities, it gets pretty confusing to handle that. Then the players who are not selected get excluded considerably and start feeling disappointed and create chaos in the entire team by being unhappy. Chelsea’s squad size made it impossible for Potter to entertain everyone, thereby creating turbulence in an already shaken squad.
“You can only pick 11 players, and if you’ve got 20 players not playing, it doesn’t matter where you are,” Potter said. “If you can find a coach out there who says, ‘Yeah, that’s the best condition for me,’ I’d be very surprised.”
A Disastrous Transfer Season For Chelsea
Ultimately, the huge amount of financial support from the Chelsea board and these big-money purchases via high-profile signings, was of no use. And it was Potter’s reign that ended without fulfilling the expectations. The ex-Brighton manager seemingly failed to settle on a set XI for the team. He continuously rotated his players to ensure that everybody got a game. But this only unsettled the performances.
Chelsea’s games under Potter were really good at times, and at times they were average. But his reign at the club ultimately came to an end. The size of the team and trying to manage so many new players was the big reason to the collapse of his reign. In football, the team needs balance. But overinvestment in players without intelligence led Chelsea into a crowded team with miserable performances.
Conclusion
For Chelsea, the bloated squad matter now is upon Potter’s successors to handle. It is their task to reduce the squad delicately in search of the right balance of people. People who will give the team its much-needed quality. The lesson of the period is clear. And apparently, having a large enough, more than talented looking squad simply is not the best idea. After all. the lack of balance leads to chaos and miserable performances.
As for Graham Potter, his spell at Chelsea might well prove a valuable learning experience in his managerial career. ‘Sometimes too good a thing can easily become a problem’. Now the exciting part will be to look after Enzo Maresca‘s reign. Although, till now he has managed an even more crowded squad brilliantly. But the time will show, how long will he be able to continue this form. But for now, Chelsea fans would be keeping their fingers crossed and hoping for the luck to not leave their side.
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