Graham Potter lined up for shock job with Italian giants

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 10 Oct 2023 10:32 BST
• 3 min read

Graham Potter has emerged as a shock option to take over the managerial job at Napoli.

Potter has been out of work for six months since being sacked by Chelsea in April.

Foot Mercato reports that Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has Potter down on his list of possible replacements for Rudi Garcia.

READ MORE: How much did it cost Chelsea to sack Graham Potter?

Garcia is at risk of the sack after a disastrous start to the season at Napoli.

The reigning Serie A champions have already lost more home games in 2023-24 than they did throughout the whole of the last campaign.

They find themselves seven points off the top of the table, and on Sunday they suffering a dismal 3-1 home loss to Fiorentina.

READ MORE: From war with Osimhen to #GarciaOut: Napoli hit by an earthquake

De Laurentiis held talks with Garcia on Monday and although it is believed the Frenchman will be given another chance, the ex-Roma and Lyon coach is on very thin ice.

Even more so as Foot Mercato reports that Garcia has lost the dressing room, having had public rows with star players Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

Antonio Conte, Marco Giampaolo and Igor Tudor are all options to replace Garcia, according to the Italian media, but Foot Mercato adds Potter to the list.

Potter to return to football?

Potter is keen to return to football management after six months out of the game.

Potter had a disastrous time of things at Chelsea after replacing Thomas Tuchel as manager in the early weeks of the 2022-23 season.

Despite a world record transfer outlay from Chelsea owner Todd Boehly, the Blues found themselves in a dire position at the time of Potter’s sacking.

They were down in 11th position in the Premier League, 11 points off Champions League qualification with just 10 games to go.

Boehly had attempted to be patient with Potter but that patience ran out and he brought in Frank Lampard as caretaker manager until the end of the season before hiring Mauricio Pochettino permanently for this campaign.