Chelsea take on Fulham on Thursday night looking to overcome consecutive defeats to Manchester City in the Premier League and FA Cup
Following defeat to Manchester City, there was clearly a hint of frustration in Graham Potter as he sat down for his post-match press conference. He remained willing to engage with the media’s questions but there was an obvious dissatisfaction with the manner of defeat.
The Blues boss has become more familiar than he would have liked with the feeling of defeat since taking over the Chelsea hot-seat. Since going unbeaten through his opening nine matches in charge, he has since recorded just two wins in his last 10 games.
Potter has met with senior players in a bid to turn Chelsea’s form around, and revealed ahead of the weekend that the presentation he puts forward to the media, does not expose his true emotions.
Defeat certainly has an impact on him, however.
Potter said: “After a game I am not a very pleasant person, in terms of it hurting me. Absolutely. I have to come up and talk to you guys directly after a game, and it is not quite putting on a show, but I have to deal with that as part of my job. When you lose, or don’t get the results, it is painful, it really is. It affects your family. As much as you try to have balance and perspective, I am a human as well and it is a struggle.
“At the same time, you have to take responsibility, ultimately. What am I going to do? Be the Chelsea manager and not expect pressure, trouble, challenge, stress – it would be strange of me to do that. You have to take responsibility. You have to show up. You have to lead the group and lead the team. Half the time, by the time I get to speak to you again, I am in a good place.”
Potter does not regret his decision to come to Chelsea or into this line of work, however. Does he feel guilty for the impact on his family?
“I don’t think guilt. I don’t think so,” said the 47-year-old. “They know there are pluses and minuses to the job. And ultimately, I am not after pity here. I am really grateful and privileged to be here. How do you get through this tough period? Be really grateful for it. Because it is an unbelievable challenge. I mean, wow, what else could you be doing with your life? Worse. It is pain, but then life can be more painful.
“Life can really kick you in the nuts and you have to recover from it, deal with it, move forward. And that’s what makes life better – when it moves to a good place. I feel like I have to take more responsibility and I have to be grateful for the challenge and the opportunity that I have.”
Potter’s first four months in charge of the Blues have already encapsulated a number of ups and downs. It wasn’t long into his tenure that he was already being linked with a departure to take the reigns of the England national team.
Social media has been espoused tones of support and vitriol for Potter in recent months. The 47-year-old believes the criticism is something he has to accept, even if he intends to not listen to the majority of the furore that is released whether it be positive on negative.
He explained: “Easiest answer is you don’t listen to the majority of it because you’d be crazy if you did. You have to acknowledge the criticism because its not like I’m sitting here absolutely perfect. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. We live in a world of social media.
“You guys have a tough job I think because you’ve got to write balanced and fair pieces but what gets clicks is contentious headlines. So if you go onto social media it is mostly negative, I would say in any area, and we are still trying to work out how to deal with that.
“You can post something anonymously on social media, you don’t know where its coming from but it is out there and it becomes the truth. I think that is probably a challenge for us all on how you deal with the noise.
“Two or three months ago we hadn’t lost a game. I’ve been doing this job for 12 years. I could probably sit here and talk to you about what I’ve achieved and people I could use as references for me. But there’s no point in me doing that because I understand the world we are in, there’s noise and criticism out there and that is fine. You just have to deal with it.”
Potter has not always been so good at keeping away from the noise that football brings. Despite his success at Ostersunds, the Chelsea head coach did not enjoy the most positive reception from everyone in his opening months at the club. Forums were not particularly kind and on the advice of his wife and former chairman, Potter was soon avoiding opinions on the internet.
He said: “It started around then! I used to speak about this with my wife because she would say@ ‘It doesn’t do you any good looking at that.’
“It doesn’t do you any good reading comments because you don’t know where it’s come from and there’s a lot of angry people in the world and my ex-chairman said – it’s a great line – ‘there’s no point arguing with stupid people because they’re stupid.’
“I’m not saying anybody criticising me is stupid at all, but you get my point. It’s hard to take anything from it. At the same time, it’s part of the job, there’s always a point to it as well, and you want to get a sense of where people are, especially when you’re in a foreign country. But it’s hard.
“Human beings want to be liked. We all want to be liked, really, but we understand that in this room there will be two out of five that don’t like me and they won’t like you either. In the end, it doesn’t do you any good and it’s not great for your mental health, and you just have to understand that it’s out there.
“People can say whatever they want, it’s a free country, I appreciate that. And then I have to stay focused on what I can do and what I can control.”
SOURCE: football.london
