Ian Wright says ‘you can’t see’ how Graham Potter’s Chelsea want to play as he compared the under-fire boss to Mikel Arteta at Arsenal.
With talk about Potter’s future at Chelsea, after their 2-0 defeat to Tottenham on Sunday where they are sitting tenth in the Premier League table, some are comparing the Englishman to Arteta and when he was handed the keys to the Emirates.
As Wright mentioned, Arsenal fans were ‘very, very close’ to wanting Arteta out because there were numerous occasions where he could have been booted out.
But, despite the noise from the outside, similar to what Potter is facing now, those in north London stuck by their manager and they are now sitting at the top of the Premier League table.
Will Chelsea owner Todd Boehly show the same patience to his £192k-a-week man? The big issue here is that Chelsea fans, for two decades, have been used to their club bringing in the best of the best, and as soon as the trophies dry out, they are booted out.
It’s relegation-threatened Leeds United up next for Potter, followed by their second-leg Champions League tie against Dortmund, with Ian Wright sharing his thoughts, as he told Premier League Productions (27/02/23 at 2:15 pm).
“Mikel Arteta, being somebody that has been there, he an affinity with the club and he understood the club,” said Wright. “You can’t underestimate him winning the FA Cup in that first season and how much time that gave him because Arsenal fans were very, very close.
“They wanted him out. We saw ‘Arteta out’. ‘He’s not good enough, he’s never managed before and he has never managed at this level’. You look at what he’s doing now and it is laughable. Can you imagine if they did get rid of him?
“When you look at patience, there was that spell, they announced Mikel as ‘the manager. He is now in charge of everything’. There is no surprise that everything has changed in how he wants things. When you look at what was happening at the club. The players that were there. The players he had to get out. And the players he wanted to get in.
“Him doing that, yes they won the FA Cup and it gave him a little bit of time and time to get things right. What you could always see with Arsenal is how they wanted to play. What’s happening with Chelsea is that you can’t see where the green shoots are. You feel like there is no way they are going to win the Champions League. There is nothing for the fans to hold onto.”
POTTER WON’T GET THE TIME
A club like Tottenham, even possibly Arsenal and Manchester United were more suited to Potter rather than Chelsea because of how they all run their clubs.
Chelsea, since the turn of the century, have been used to hiring and firing managers like they are the English equivalent of Real Madrid.
The likes of Spurs are more patient and if Potter was going to take that step up, then he needed to pick the right project.
It seems as though he has picked the wrong one here and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he is booted out of the door sooner rather than later.
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