Graham Potter provides update on Chelsea’s January transfer plans

Chelsea FC via Getty Images
Nizaar Kinsella5 November 2022

Graham Potter is ready to head overseas after a ‘crazy’ start to his Chelsea career but will quickly get back to work to prepare for the upcoming January transfer window.

The 47-year-old has been in charge for almost two months but had faced a game every three days with the football calendar squashed in because of the winter World Cup.

With most elite players heading to the World Cup, the club game will be on hiatus for six weeks but Potter insists he will only take a short time off and then work on planning and reviewing his team.

“I think I will try and go away to try to escape the beauty of November weather in the UK,” Potter told reporters at Cobham Training Centre.

“It has just been a crazy time to start the season at Brighton and then I came quickly here, it all happened so fast. There was then the international break and in October we had 11 games I think. It was just crazy.

“You are trying to understand everybody, the players and everything that goes with it. You need time to reflect. It is important to take that time to recharge and settle and go again to understand what we need to do, how we can help with January and moving forward.

“All those things are a combination of work and reflection.”

It’s part of a broader look for some longer term thinking which has been the basis for the new Boehly-Clearlake regime’s appointment of Potter.

That strategic attitude is something he warns fans will have to get used to: “People think it is just going to happen for you - it is incredible. At what level does that happen? It is quite a dangerous message to tell people.

“Sir Alex Ferguson did quite well and took his time. Pep is a genius but he didn’t just walk in and it happened. He took some time. Jurgen took some time. But the evidence is there.

“Even they don’t just walk in, click their fingers and everything is perfect. You guys [the media], it is your job to create noise, pressure and stories, sometimes it is justified but it is a combination of a lot of things.

“It is part of the circus of noise that makes the Premier League so interesting and, as I have said before, as a coach you have to understand the short, medium and long term.

“If you just focus on the medium and long term then you are in trouble. That’s just the life that we have.

“If people want to produce another narrative then I can’t control that. The team when I left Brighton wasn’t the same as when I left. It grew and developed.

“Sometimes you have to fall on your face and pick yourself up, take the criticism and people who are wise after the event - so called experts. You have to deal with that. That’s just the life of a coach.”

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