Chelsea are now in a rather unique period by modern football standards.
Due to a chain of circumstances, the Blues will play a single game between September 7 and October 1. Given the incredible rush of matches that has seen us play twice a week all season for almost two years, this is a very strange streak.
However, it has meant that Graham Potter has the perfect opportunity to take charge, with an exceptional amount of time in training camp with his team.
Many of them will leave later in the month for the international break, but even they will have had two solid weeks of training with their new coach by the time the time comes.
Players who don’t feature on their national teams – and that includes a lot of really talented first-team players and youngsters – will have a truly exceptional amount of time with Potter to impress him and absorb his principles.
It really couldn’t have been planned better, and for a manager like Potter it could give him a chance to succeed at a ruthless club like Chelsea, where patience is always in short supply, no matter who appoints him. He needs every advantage he can get. He has credit in the bank, as he was appointed by our new owners, but as Thomas Tuchel showed, even an estimated amount of credit can erode very quickly.
Chelsea’s recent results have not been very good, and they were bad enough to sack a great manager like Tuchel, despite claims that decision was not directly related to performances. Last Wednesday’s draw makes our position in the Champions League group stage much worse too.
But overall, there are plenty of benefits to this setup, and certainly the new coach won’t have the excuse that most mid-season boss appointees have: that they’ve barely had a session on the training pitch or in the training rooms. meetings with his new team as they are moved from the stadium to the recovery session from October to March with barely a full day’s work at Cobham in between.
The price they will pay is in the future, when they have to squeeze out these two league games that have been lost, after a grueling World Cup that will disproportionately affect teams like Chelsea, who have many players involved.
But that’s a problem for future Chelsea and future Potter: right now he just needs some time with the players and a few wins on the board.
