Irish football legend Brian Kerr speaks with Stephen Doyle after Tottenham Hotspur beat Chelsea 2-0 today in the Premier League thanks to goals from Oliver Skipp and Harry Kane, marking another disappointing loss for Blues’ boss Graham Potter.
After the defeat more questions than ever now linger for Potter, might he resign to avoid further reputational damage, will he be sacked before he has the opportunity to do so or in a drastic turn of events could the former Brighton manager turn results around for Chelsea?
Brian Kerr was on hand to explore all of the above.
“I’m sure he’s had a few ups and downs before in his managerial career where he’s felt at a low ebb” he explains.
“I’m sure he was at that last week when they lost to Southampton and I’m sure he’s feeling worse today, but you don’t get to the level he’s at if you’ve got thin skin or if you haven’t got real mettle or bottle about you.”
Kerr went on to examine how “football management is rarely easy” and that “anyone that thinks it’s handy what I’d say to them is to have a go. Even at the lowest levels running the schoolboys teams or anything, people that have been through it will understand it the little factors you’ve to deal with and the pressure you’re under.”
“The pressure Graham Potter is under is phenomenal but you have to be made of good stuff to manage at that level so I don’t see him resigning.”
With that said however, there are still other facets at play that could see the man at the helm of Chelsea moved on.
“Whether the new owners come in and say ‘look, we made a mistake, it hasn’t gone for you. We need results and we’ve spent over 600 million on players we expected better. Good luck!’, I don’t think the reputational damage would to be too severe for him” Kerr describes, “but his reputation with the Chelsea supporters unfortunately is badly damaged at the moment unless he can turn it around.”
And can Kerr envisage him doing just that?
“I think that European game if he can survive until then is going to be very important because they’ve got a depth of squad that they could win those knockout games if they can turn things around” he says.
“That result [1-0 loss] with Dortmund they played very well in that first leg and they could well turn that around in the second leg this week.
“Then if they get by that they’re in the quarter finals of the Champions League and they’ve done that before from there!”
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