Pep Guardiola has said that Graham Potter needs more time to improve Chelsea after a 4-0 defeat to Manchester City on Sunday, January 8.
Chelsea crashed out of the FA Cup following a poor performance on Sunday, and it was also the second time they’ve lost to Manchester City in two days.
Calls for Potter to be sacked have increased in the last few days as the London-based club has won just one of their last seven matches in all competitions and in that time have fallen to 10th in the Premier League.
However, speaking at a post-match press conference, Guardiola said it would be wrong for Potter who was appointed to the job in September, to be sacked as all managers need time to improve their team.
The Manchester City Coach also said he didn’t need time at Barcelona because he already had Argentine football legend, Lionel Messi.
He said;
“I’d say to Todd Boehly, give Graham Potter time. Give him time. All the managers need time and he is right. I know at big clubs results are important but give him time. What he did at Brighton as outstanding, but all the managers need time he is right. In Barcelona I didn’t need two seasons because I had [Lionel] Messi there.”
Graham Potter reveals that Chelsea’s current form almost ruined his holiday
Graham Potter has disclosed how Chelsea’s poor form before the World Cup break almost ruined his holiday.
Before the break, the London-based club lost four out of their last five matches and these include three consecutive Premier League defeats and a loss to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup.
Addressing reporters after his holiday in California, Potter expressed his gratitude to the club’s ownership for backing him and making him believe in the project ‘even more’ after a meeting in the US with co-owner Behdad Eghbali.
He said;
“I would rather have gone on holiday with a couple of wins behind me, because I probably would have been better company for my poor wife. As it was, I’m staring into the Pacific Ocean, and she’s thinking about what a wonderful time we’re having, and I’m thinking about Chelsea Football Club.
“But thankfully she’s been with me long enough to know that that’s how it is, and then you have to use the pain, the frustration, the disappointment of the last few weeks to say ‘OK, how can we go forward?’ And then, like anything, a bit of distance gives you that time, a bit of perspective, and then it’s about how you can start the process of integrating all the players back and taking the learning of that time and saying ‘OK, we need to show some direction here’.”