New Chelsea manager, Graham Potter has vowed to build ‘relationships, respect and trust’ within the squad as he was officially unveiled today.
The former Brighton & Hove Albion boss made the pledge as he signed his 5 year deal with Chelsea and posed for his official unveiling photographs on Monday, September 12.
Potter posed for pictures with co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali as he gave his first interview to the club’s official social media accounts.
‘It’s the start of a really exciting period. A new ownership I was really impressed by, firstly as people and then the vision of the club,’ Potter said.
‘The history of the club speaks for itself but it’s about trying to create that again in our own way.’
He continued: ‘It’s an amazing history, fantastic tradition, a historic football club. I mean, growing up with the fantastic teams of Chelsea, of the modern era.
‘You only have to walk around the place here and you see the pictures, you see the trophies, you see the names.
‘It’s incredible and it’s a huge honour, like I said, for me to be a part of that now.
‘It’s about creating a team that competes, that has respect for each other, that is honest, that works together, so it’s a combination of, I would say, football and human values that we try to work with.
‘I think that you have to understand that they’re human beings first, and the key thing is to try understand them, understand what motivates them and understand what they’re like as people, and then, from that, try to come to some common ground, try to build relationships, to try to communicate effectively on a daily basis and build respect, trust and honesty.
‘My starting point would always be the person first. I had a football career that I was very fortunate to have that gave me loads of opportunities, loads of experience and then my education, after retiring, I suppose gave me a chance to put that into some theory, to put some context to the experiences.
Challenges abroad meant that I could widen my thoughts on myself, on life, on football, which was a fantastic experience for me, so all of those challenges, all those experiences, I think shape you as a human being.
‘They make you grow, they make you develop. I always think that in order to get better you have to take a little step outside of what’s comfortable and our job as coaches is to provide the players that opportunity to do that.’
Potter signed a five-year contract to succeed Thomas Tuchel, who was sacked last week after a poor 1-0 defeat to Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League group-stages.
The new boss has been joined at Chelsea by assistant Billy Reid, first-team coaches Bjorn Hamberg and Bruno, goalkeeping coach Ben Roberts and assistant head of recruitment Kyle Macaulay from Brighton.
