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Graham Potter to become new Chelsea manager


Published : 08 Sep 2022 08:52 PM

Chelsea have reached a verbal agreement with Brighton manager Graham Potter on Thursday to replace Thomas Tuchel as their next head coach.

Tuchel was sacked on Wednesday in the wake of Chelsea's 1-0 loss to Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League and just six games into the new Premier League season.

Chelsea owner Todd Boehly met Potter in central London on Wednesday afternoon for what were described as "positive talks" about the Brighton manager's future role at Stamford Bridge and the club's plans to develop the whole football operation.

Those discussions continued early on Thursday morning, with the focus on the legal details of his contract and Potter's backroom staff.

No contracts have yet been signed, however both sides have reached a verbal agreement about the 47-year-old taking over at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea made it clear they were prepared to meet Brighton's exit clause figure for Potter.

Mauricio Pochettino and Zinedine Zidane, who are both out of work, as well as Sporting in Lisbon manager Ruben Amorim were all also on Chelsea's radar.

Potter will become the first managerial appointment of the Boehly era following his summer takeover. 

    The American is still acting as sporting director having moved on director Marina Granovskaia, chairman Bruce Buck and technical and performance advisor Petr Cech in a complete overhaul of Roman Abramovich's trusted staff.

Tuchel cleared his desk on Wednesday after the short meeting where he was dismissed and stayed at the training ground with his departing coaching staff to say their goodbyes.

The German manager, who joined the club in January 2021, wants to take a break before returning to football.

Tuchel is still highly regarded by many people at Chelsea because of the trophies and the leadership he showed during extremely difficult circumstances. At Chelsea, the coronavirus pandemic and the end of the Roman Abramovich era were difficult scenarios - the latter resulting in club sanctions, employees not being paid and a fear of the club going out of business.