Troy Deeney: Players are gossips… the Chelsea lads will be grilling Cucurella to find out exactly what Potter is like
HOWEVER many times a footballer has seen a change of manager, it is always a period of confusion, uncertainty and excitement.
I obviously experienced plenty of managerial changes at Watford and Chelsea’s longer-serving players will be exactly the same.
When Graham Potter was appointed as Chelsea boss this week, players’ phones will have been going crazy.
The players’ WhatsApp group will have been buzzing and there will have been calls and messages from friends, family, agents and others in the game.
Everyone just wants to know what the new man is like and every player will know others who have played under their new boss and they will be mining them for information.
Players talk and message all the time. We’re gossips. You can bet everyone at Chelsea will have been asking Marc Cucurella about Potter, as he played for their new manager at Brighton last season.
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There are also former Chelsea players at Brighton, such as Tariq Lamptey and on-loan Levi Colwill. They will be inundated with messages.
More than anything, the players will have been desperate to meet the new manager and find out what he is all about — to get rid of that feeling of uncertainty.
And the first two weeks are always crucial.
That’s the length of time a group of players will need to know whether they rate their new boss.
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So a win or two in that time is always massive because winning disguises any problems that might exist.
There will be a lot of new information about patterns of play, about new training routines.
Players will always want to know their timetables, whether they will have more or less time off — not that those in the Champions League will have much time at all, especially this season.
But if Potter told them to arrive at 9am on his first morning, you can bet that every one of them will be at the training ground by 8.30am.
There’s always a team meeting where the new boss will lay out his philosophy, his rules, the way he will run things — and even if you’ve been through a dozen managers, they are all different.
Potter is bringing his Brighton backroom staff with him, so that’s another four or five individuals for all the Chelsea players to get to know, as they are also key to the mood of a training ground.
Players who haven’t been in the team will see it as a fresh start, a clean slate.
The players’ WhatsApp group will have been buzzing and there will have been calls and messages from friends, family, agents and others in the game.
Troy Deeney
While others will be wondering whether they fit into the new man’s way of playing. Potter is such an interesting appointment for Chelsea.
It is a really promising one for English coaches, a lot of whom will have imagined that a job managing one of the ‘Big Six’ would always be beyond them.
Some of the players will feel confused because I don’t think they will have been expecting Thomas Tuchel to be sacked so soon in the new season.
But even those who liked and respected Tuchel will quickly forget about him.
People often don’t like to hear it but football is a cut-throat business and even a manager who has won a European Cup, like Tuchel, is yesterday’s man already.
Some will be sceptical of Potter because he hasn’t got the elite-level CV that most Chelsea managers arrived with at Stamford Bridge.
And Potter will be dealing with a different level of egos to what he has experienced at Brighton and before.
Others will know a lot about his time at Brighton and I think Chelsea’s England players — like Raheem Sterling, Mason Mount, Ben Chilwell and Reece James — will recognise a manager with similar methods to Gareth Southgate.
Potter was talked about as Southgate’s natural successor before he got the Chelsea job.
But that will be the last thing on his mind now he has got this amazing opportunity.
He has inherited a squad of players he could only have dreamt about at Brighton and he will be pinching himself, I’m sure.
But he deserves this crack at a big job. I just hope the new ownership, under Todd Boehly, will be a lot more patient with their managers than Roman Abramovich often was.
He has inherited a squad of players he could only have dreamt about at Brighton and he will be pinching himself, I’m sure.
Troy Deeney
The fact that Potter has been given a five-year contract is a good indication that they intend to be.
And it helps Potter that Chelsea made so many summer signings.
I think the timing is good for him because he won’t feel like he is inheriting ‘Tuchel’s team’ as such.
There are six new signings who had hardly got used to his predecessor.
Yet it is all about results at a big club.
Potter had some poor runs at Brighton but because expectations were lower, he was able to ride those out.
Supporters may be more difficult to win over than players.
It’s fair to say that Chelsea’s fanbase isn’t the easiest to convince.
Many fans may feel Potter is ‘beneath’ them.
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Players are less likely than supporters to turn their noses up at a manager because he isn’t a ‘celebrity’ name.
But they will make their minds up about Potter soon, so those early impressions count — big time.