The consequences of sacking Graham Potter is more daunting for Chelsea Football Club than it is for the manager

It is better to have a good manager than having good players when you give a good manager the needed time, they are able to control the pattern of a team but good players can only play their part under the tutelage of a manager. Football has become more technical.

Chelsea’s last seven Premier League games has produced only one win but this is not a reason to start calling for the manager to be sacked. YES!

Someone, somewhere in the other part of London was here not so long ago and there is no telling what they went through before they get to where they are in the present, a position every other team in the league cherish.

In context, Arsenal at a time went ten Premier League games and can only produce a win, losing to the likes of Burnley, Wolves, Everton, Aston Villa and more.

At that time, it did not matter whether they were playing at home or away. Aston Villa came to the Emirates and won by three goals to nothing. The form was so poor it was worse that what got Arteta's predecessor, Unai Emery sacked.

But with time, it has become very easy to forget this same Arsenal team actually went through those ugly phase. Having afforded the needed time to get things together, Mikel Arteta's Arsenal have become a team to beat in the Premier League this season.

There is so much assurance and security in their play that always makes you feel that even when behind, it is only a matter of time that they get back in the game. That is how it feels when you give managers needed time to do their thing.

Now, it is the turn of Chelsea and a test of their mettle because this is an expected phase when a team undergoes transition but at the same time, it is to be noted that Chelsea have known nothing like this during the reign of Roman Abramovic, that lasted for almost two decades.

It is never plain sailing when building a team to produce top performances that will be sustained for a very long time, it takes time to build the chemistry and given the manager will have to work with a new set of players, at least, a window or two should be afforded for the benefit of doubt.

Graham Potter might not be an elite manager but what is evidence is that with what he did at Brighton, he can surely do better at Chelsea, where he can get to work with players of much better quality.

To achieve stability in result, there is the need to control games consistently and be able to ask tough questions from the opponents.

For Chelsea in very long time now, it only come once in a while and even in the games they where they dominate, they are never too certain their dominance is enough to totally keep the opponents at bay.

It is very difficult when a manager that hasn't achieve much is task with managing a set of players who have achieved more because once the players are able to play according to your plan and result don't go your way, you start having troubles.

This is why a team in transition is better off with players of low profiles than the established big names.

The case for Graham Potter now is that Chelsea have to bear with the rough patches that precedes the promising future. More time has to be given to the manager to build a team 'no one wants to play against' that was promised by Thomas Tuchel but was only able to achieved in his early days and not sustained for long.

When managers have it easy in their early days in a very competitive leagues, they in the end struggle to maintain the form for long because other teams tend to improve too. Take as case study the Premier League, where there are almost eight top class managers.

Antonio Conte completely transformed Tottenham Hotspur upon his arrival at the club late 2021 and even secured Champions League qualification when they had looked down and out prior to his appointment.

However, this days, they have not been able to maintain positive results as they have ready been exposed because Conte never intend to control games but absorb pressure and hurt the opponents on the counter.

The league becoming more technical has now made them easily get punished for the time and chances afforded to creative players in the other teams.

Much of the good results Tottheham have enjoyed this season have been down to the quality of their players in attacking players. The team has become very predictable and that has been devastating for them so far. It does not look good for Spurs going forward under Antonio Conte.

Back to Chelsea again, Potter will need time, patient and support of the fans. Whether or not he will succeed, you'll never know if you don't give him time and you might have to repeat the same phase under a new manager, just as the case was under Thomas Tuchel.

Tuchel, appeared to be the architect of his own sacking but can anyone blame him in such case ? After the sacking of Frank Lampard, it was sure the club have to go through the patient phase but the German rather miraculously led them to the Champions League title, which was why the appetite was rapidly resurrected.

In the end, that success costed him his own job due to the inability of the team to sustain the performance in that run to the title.

Had Tuchel not win the title in his first half season at Chelsea and managed to get them to finish in Champions League places in the league as he always did, he could still be the man at helm at the club today. Who knows ?

So before you criticize Graham Potter that he inherited a Champions League winning squad, remember that the same manager that led them to the title was unable to sustain the level of performances that saw them ousted Real Madrid and company on their way.

Chelsea have spent well above £300 million on transfers under the Boehly's, much of which had been spent during the time of Tuchel and now they are in another period of spending, in order to get in players to meet the demands of a new manager.

What happens to the players when the managers that got them in have been sacked and a new manager of a distinct philosophy is brought in as successor ?

First, the value of players will diminish because of obvious drop in performances and then club tend to lose more when shipping them out to another clubs. Such is the detrimental impact it will have on the financial aspect.

With other clubs already affording their managers time to build just like Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, even the Spaniard finished third in his first season, and that was after he signed the players suitable for his system in the transfer window.

In the early days of Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool and Mikel Arteta at Arsenal, compared to where the two clubs are right now, there are signs for Chelsea to be optimistic of what is to come in the future, with new owners willing to invest at the club.

And they can also compare the situation of Manchester United, who spent years changing managers just to stay relevant but having wasted their investments and ended up receiving criticism by their own fans, they have embraced the decision to rebuild under Erik Ten Hag.

The Chelsea fan base is not famous for being patient but they might have to learn that patient is a good virtue now after all, and get behind the manager to lead through the muddy situation.

Author: Kehinde Hassan Afolabi