The manager of Chelsea Football Club, Graham Potter, has raised fears that his training sessions at Chelsea are not yielding dividends due to having lots of players to work with.
Graham Potter currently tutors a team with a first-team squad of thirty-one (31) following a mind-boggling winter transfer window.
Chelsea splashed the cash to acquire eight new players to the team with Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali spending £323 million on eight new signings.
There was only one outgoing player and that was Jorginho Frello Filho who joined Arsenal. The signing from Brazil, Andrey Santos has not linked up with the side alongside Malo Gusto.
Graham Potter has found it hard keeping the morale of his team
Graham Potter has established that keeping the morale of the team is resulting in an herculean task because “most players want to play”,.
After only a month of working with a bigger crop of players, there are now strong worries that the puffed-up numbers is one of the hindrances to fruitful work on the training pitch.
Chelsea lost to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday through goals from Oliver Skipp and Harry Kane, that loss meant that The Blues have only picked up just one win in their previous fifteen (15) league games.
During his time with the Seagulls Brighton and Hove Albion, Swansea City and Ostersunds, Graham Potter developed a rapour as an hands-on manager who painstakingly does his duty on patterns of play and the shape of the team in training.
However, this method is proving rigorous due to the massive amount of players he has to work with.
Graham Potter has been made to leave some players in and around the training ground or observing their training in mini groups until they are needed as against his favorite approach of 11 v 11 matches in training.
Potter made six tweaking to his starting eleven and the afterwards result was a third consecutive loss for Chelsea in all competitions.
Players Chelsea acquired in the winter transfer window
Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali spent staggering amount to acquire players namely; Enzo Fernandez from Benfica for £107m.
They additionally signed Mykhailo Mudryk from Shakhtar Donetsk for £88m, Benoit Badiashile from Monaco for £35m, Malo Gusto from Lyon for £26.3m, Noni Madueke from PSV for £26m, Andrey Santos from Vasco da Gama for £18m, David Datro Fofana from Molde for £8m and Joao Felix joining from Atletico Madrid on loan.
The Blues have been loud in the transfer market since they were purchased by Todd Boehly/Clearlake Capital in the summer of 2022 but Graham Potter came in for Thomas Tuchel after the previous summer.
Graham Potter was said to have been communicated on the signing of new players and he acceded, giving the go ahead for new incomings.
He thought that more less used players would be shipped out of the club and he even spoke to the club website in the past of how a bloated 31-man squad would be a problem.
Potter has been able to fit in all Chelsea’s new additions into his 25-man Premier League squad, as those aged 22 or under are registered separately.
Although names like; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Benoit Badiashile, Noni Madueke and David Datro Fofana were excluded from the club’s UEFA Champions League squad.
“There are challenges when you’ve got that many players, There are challenges in terms of what role they play because most players want to play. They want to play, be on the pitch and help the team. When they are not, it is a challenge for lots of reasons at this club.” Graham Potter speaking early in the month of February.
He further added:
“When you go through a period of transition and the steps we’ve gone through then there are going to be periods when it is going to be tougher than you ideally want, it’s not optimal.
“I am not complaining about it and I have to do my best to support and manage the club. Step by step I want to put the team in a better place than when I arrived.”
