London (Reuters)
Chelsea, struggling in the English Premier League, announced the dismissal of its coach, Graham Potter, after a series of poor results, which led to the team’s ranking in the competition dropping to 11th place.
Potter signed a contract with Chelsea in the presence of the new owners last September, after his departure from Brighton & Hove Albion, but the English coach lasted only 31 matches and won 12 of them, before the club’s owners decided to dismiss him.
While Potter oversaw the team’s victories in the Champions League, topping their group after beating Milan twice and ousting Borussia Dortmund, the team’s level in the league fell after dropping out of the top four to the bottom half of the table.
His last match with the team was Chelsea’s 2-0 loss at home to Aston Villa on Saturday, which led to loud boos and jeers from the crowd at Stamford Bridge, as the result left them 12 points adrift of the top four and with the danger of missing out on the chance to play in Europe this season. next.
“Graham has agreed to work with the club to facilitate a smooth transition,” the club said in a statement.
“In his time with the club, Graham has led us to the Champions League quarter-finals, where we will face Real Madrid. Chelsea would like to thank Graham for all his efforts and contributions, and we wish him well for the future.
Bruno Saltor will take over as coach of the team on an interim basis.
Saltor’s first game will be the day after tomorrow, Tuesday, at home against eighth-placed Liverpool, who are four points ahead of him.
Co-owners Todd Boley and Behdad Iqbali said: “Along with our amazing fans, we will all be behind Bruno and the team as we focus on the rest of the season.
“We have 10 Premier League games left and a Champions League quarter-final. We’ll do our best and stick to every one of those games, so we can finish the season on a high.”
Potter is the twelfth coach to be sacked in the English Premier League this season, and the announcement came hours after relegation-threatened Leicester City separated from Brendan Rodgers by mutual agreement.
With the departure of Rodgers and Potter, the English Premier League set a record for the number of dismissals during one season, surpassing the previous record by dismissing ten coaches in four other seasons, the last of which was in 2017-2018.
Surprisingly appointed to the post after Thomas Tuchel was sacked in September, following a lackluster start to the season, Potter had an impressive start to the nine-match unbeaten run before losing 4-1 at Brighton on 30 October.
Then Potter faltered and failed to get the best out of a team that had been boosted through two transfer windows, with owners Todd Boley and Clearlake Capital spending more than €600m on new players.
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