Chelsea FC and coach Graham Potter separate

Graham Potter is no longer Chelsea manager. As the Champions League quarter-finalist officially announced on Sunday evening, Potter has been separated.

Just over half a year after his arrival, the coach is history again. Assistant coach Bruno Saltor will look after the Blues on an interim basis.

“On behalf of the entire club we would like to thank Graham for his work at Chelsea,” Blues owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali were quoted as saying in the statement. “We have the utmost respect for Graham as a person and as a coach. He has always behaved professionally and with integrity. We are all disappointed with this outcome.”

Potter only took over Chelsea in September last year as the successor to the current Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel and signed a contract in London until 2027.

Despite big investments in the January transfer window, the Blues are currently only eleventh in the Premier League. It is therefore hardly possible to qualify for the Champions League for the coming season via the league.

In the current season of the premier class, however, Potter has led Chelsea to the quarter-finals. Defending champions Real Madrid are waiting there in mid-April. Who will be the new solution on the English coaching bench after Saltor is still open.

Ex-Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann has already been traded, but probably doesn’t want to take over a club again until the summer. If he still takes the opportunity, there could be a clash with his former employer and Tuchel in the semi-finals of the Champions League. Luis Enrique and Zinédine Zidane are said to be among the other candidates for the Potter successor.