Graham Potter sends warning message to Chelsea fans over new project

Chelsea head coach Graham Potter has moved to send something of a warning to the Blues’ fanbase, over expectations at the club moving forward.

Chelsea of course took their place front and centre in the headlines a little over 24 hours ago, for altogether less than positive reasons.

This came as a trip to England’s south coast to face Brighton & Hove Albion culminated in the Pensioners’ nine-game unbeaten streak being brought to an end in alarming fashion.

Strikes on the part of Leandro Trossard and Pascal Groß, either side of a pair of own goals from Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Trevoh Chalobah, saw Chelsea depart the Amex Stadium on the wrong side of a 4-1 scoreline.

The result, altogether unsurprisingly, was followed by a swift backlash on the part of the Blues faithful.

Boss Graham Potter was singled out for particularly heavy criticism, with the Englishman’s tactical and personnel choices alike called into serious question on his return to former stomping grounds.

As alluded to above, though, in the time since, Chelsea’s new boss has moved to alleviate some of the pressure on he and his players alike.

In a fresh round of quotes to have surfaced online late on Sunday, Potter calls for patience in west London, warning that a new project such as the one he has taken on will require ‘pain’ and ‘suffering’ on the part of all involved:

“It’s a case of analysing the game, being calm, being fair. It’s not about the players necessarily. It’s about all of us, it’s collective, including myself. How we can do better.

“It’s not a disgrace to lose here. You can see that the opponent was very motivated. And they have got some really good players, with quality. We got off to a really bad start.

“But you have to have that sometimes if you want to make progress. If you think that the line is going to go straight up, it’s impossible.

“That team you saw out there for Brighton wasn’t the team that was there three years ago. There is a process of pain that you have to go through and you have to keep trying to improve.

“Unless there is another way. Whenever you are trying to learn or master something, get better, you need to sometimes have a step back, have a bad spell or suffer to grow and get better.”

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