How NOT to run a football club, by Todd Boehly and Graham Potter

Paul Macdonald

• 26 Feb 2023 16:15 GMT
• 4 min read

If Liverpool’s performance at Crystal Palace on Saturday can be regarded as insipid, what Chelsea produced at Tottenham was utterly unacceptable.

Premier League managers, let alone Chelsea managers, have been sacked for far less than this. A gutless, spineless, directionless performance against a team more than capable of producing displays like that themselves.

This was a team at rock bottom, so utterly devoid of ideas and inspiration that it beggars belief that this is one of the most expensively assembled squads in history. It’s now no win in six games, the first time in a decade Chelsea have descended on such a run.

READ MORE: Twitter reacts to Potter's latest defeat

Graham Potter has some sympathy. It feels like he’s just been handed 30 international footballers, some of whom he didn’t want or need, and asked them to come up with something, anything. But they are falling woefully short of even fulfilling the description of being a football team at a very basic level.

There’s been excuses; injuries have hampered him. But he had his first-choice full-backs here in Reece James and Ben Chilwell. He had his £100 million midfielder in Enzo Fernandez. And yet there’s just nothing here. No recognisable patterns of play, no structure to the attack or defence, and absolutely no sign that they look like scoring - EVER.

Tottenham will rarely be more comfortable defensively this season. A meandering passing carousel taking place in front of them, but never around them. Aimless balls piled into the box, made to be headed away by Cristian Romero and Eric Dier. And through balls attempted by players who, quite frankly, don’t have the requisite ability to play them.

Kai Havertz may be the prime personification of this. We’ve written about him before and how, though he’s been asked to perform a role that isn’t necessarily his strength, his complete lack of involvement and yet continued participation is utterly bizarre.

Chelsea may have no striking option, but literally anyone would be better than the German, who collects the ball, cuts inside, and passes it six yards backwards to his nearest team-mate. He has no fight, no desire, and no consequence in virtually every match he plays in. At least Timo Werner actually got himself into position to miss chances - Havertz can’t even do that.

It’s difficult to underestimate how bad Chelsea were, and hard to gauge just how long Todd Boehly and his acolytes can put up with this. They have given him unequivocal backing but the fundamental difference between Potter and, say, Arteta, is that even in some Arsenal’s darker moments before this season’s dawn, there was an understanding of what was being attempted. There is none of that here, eleven players existing in total isolation to one another, and who look like they know their manager is on borrowed time.

Managers should absolutely be given time to impose their ideas, and new signings time to bed in. But only two from January’s splurge - Fernandez and Benoit Badiashile - actually started here, so the rest have no excuse.

This is a prime example of how not to run a football club at the moment and Boehly is equally responsible as Potter, buying players for way over their market value, while bringing in others in positions where options already existed. It’s a masterclass is mismanagement, but Boehly can’t get rid of himself. No, Potter’s the man for that. And if games like this continue, it won’t be long before the Potter experiment is consigned to history.