Why Graham Potter chose West Ham for his second coming and what he has learned from his damaging seven months in the Chelsea ‘washing machine’

One of the lowest points of Graham Potter’s short time at Chelsea came when somebody from outside of the football department tried to tell him what team to pick for an important home game. At West Ham he will doubtless hope things will not be like that.

Potter has taken his time to return to football – it is two years this April since he was sacked by Chelsea – and he has chosen another London club where ambition and expectation run high and lines of command can become blurred.

From the outside, Potter and West Ham do not look particularly like a match made in football heaven. Potter preaches and values long-termism, a coach who measures progress and improvement incrementally. West Ham always seem to be in a hurry to get somewhere and when it doesn’t happen frustrations and anxieties grow at a similar pace.

But much of what happens once Potter is confirmed as the replacement for Julen Lopetegui will depend on what version of the 49-year-old has emerged from his damaging and traumatic seven months at Stamford Bridge.

The Potter we knew at Brighton was progressive and clever, a smart in-game tactician who improved players, showed them how to beat big name opposition and transitioned a playing style from pragmatic to bold.

At Chelsea it was different. There were mitigating factors in West London. A damaging injury list, an ownership who promised him time and didn’t give it to him and a transfer policy over which he had hardly any control. Remember that mad January in 2023 when Chelsea spent £300m? Potter says he advised the club against it but they did it anyway.

Nevertheless, Potter ultimately didn’t get on top of the job at Chelsea. His players liked him but did not always respect him. Some of them called him ‘Harry’ (Potter) behind his back. When faced with a squad of more than 30 players, he struggled to manage it. Enzo Maresca has now shown that to be possible.

And it will be the extent to which this has shaped, improved or damaged Potter that will probably be most important now. It is no coincidence that it has taken him this long to return to the game. The Chelsea experience represented his first failure as a manager and it took him a long time to recover.

Discussions with Leicester, Nottingham Forest and Wolves at various stages didn’t go anywhere. He wasn’t sure and, certainly in terms of the last two, neither were they. And the background to much of that has been of a man trying to deal with what he described as the ‘anger, bitterness, frustration and sadness’ of being lured in and then spat out by a big football club.

On a recent podcast interview with Jake Humphrey, Potter talked about working out how to be a human being again and trying to reconnect with his children. Previously, he told Mail Sport how difficult his young son found it when Potter moved from Sweden to take the job at Swansea in the summer of 2018.

From that point on, his family has been at the root of his career decisions and it is perhaps no coincidence that he has now accepted another London posting within shooting distance of his home on the south coast.

Failure – perceived or real – does change football managers and it will be interesting to see Potter begin his second coming. There is a danger that he will have over-analysed his experiences at Chelsea. He admits he has asked himself some searching questions and has had professional help while doing so.

Potter remains a talented and innovative coach, a driver of good cultures and someone who is committed to creating pathways for young players. West Ham could certainly do with a dose of all that but they will also demand results quickly too. When he arrived at Brighton in May 2019, owner Tony Bloom gave him three years to get the club to where they needed to be. He will not get that time in East London. Not a bit of it.

Potter has described his time at Chelsea as like being in a washing machine and there is no reason to suggest that an experience at West Ham will be any different. Both Lopetegui and his predecessor David Moyes have experienced chain of command issues with the football director Tim Steidten and that will be early line in the sand that the incoming manager may wish to draw.

West Ham also have a squad that lacks balance and that is missing its captain Jarrod Bowen due to a bad injury. Another forward player, Michail Antonio, is recovering from a car crash while one more, big summer signing Niclas Fullkrug, has failed to make an impact since arriving last summer.

There is talent in the West Ham squad but there is also drift. Players such as Mohammed Kudus and Lucas Paqueta have ability that runs deep but how hard are they prepared to work? Potter will have seen the video footage like the rest of us.

At Brighton Potter undoubtedly benefitted from Bloom’s smart data-led recruitment model. His team that begun the 2022/23 season with a win at Manchester United had Moises Caicedo, Alexis MacAllister, Leandro Trossard and Robert Sanchez in it. That quartet cost a combined total of £25m. Suffice to say, West Ham’s recent record in the market is rather different.

So Potter’s return to management comes with question marks attached. West Ham’s opening play was to suggest terms until the end of the season. Not much long term planning on show there.

We should be grateful that Potter is on his way back to work. We need British coaches in the Premier League and he is one of our best. Nevertheless he did tell the Humphrey podcast that all a manager can ask for is a ‘good club with good leadership’.

If we are hoping to once again see the best face of Graham Potter then we must hope for similar from West Ham too.