What Tony Bloom said about Graham Potter after Brighton exit as Jamie Carragher ridicules Todd Boehly and Chelsea

Graham Potter will take some comfort from a healthy pay-off at Chelsea but he will leave Stamford Bridge hugely disappointed that he was unable to leave a positive mark on the club.

A 2-0 home loss to Unai Emery’s improving Aston Villa brought an end to a rocky and brief tenure in West London. Just seven months ago Chelsea sacked Thomas Tuchel and prised Potter away with a six-year contracted a paid Brighton a record £21.5m in compensation – a record fee paid by an English club for a manager.

Potter’s career had been on an upward trajectory having made his name in Sweden with Ostersund and then impressed in the Championship with Swansea. He moved to Brighton and transformed them from regular relegation battlers to a team capable of challenging at the top end of the Premier League table.

The riches on offer at Chelsea and the prospect of challenging for titles and Champions Leagues lured him to Stamford Bridge and despite a promising start, Potter failed to get Chelsea consistently performing at a high level. A £566million scatter gun approach to transfers and a bulky squad only seemed to make life more tricky and last Saturday’s loss and the reaction from the fans prompted the club to respond and the 47-year-old was gone. He is reportedly set to receive a pay-off in the region of £13m.

Former Albion player and coach Bruno Saltor, who was taken to Chelsea from Brighton when Potter took the job, will take charge of the first team in the immediate term starting with Tuesday’s home game against Liverpool.

He is likely to remain in charge for both legs of the Champions League last-eight meeting with Real Madrid whilst recruitment chiefs Paul Winstanley (another ex-Brighton man) and Laurence Stewart conduct the search for a successor.

Potter has already been linked with the role at Leicester following the sacking of Brendan Rodgers and also Tottenham – who were previously linked with him during his time at Brighton. The experience at Chelsea has though called into question Potter’s ability to manage one of the footballing giants and the former Brighton may well take the rest of the season and reassess his options in the summer.

Potter may well be hurting from his brutal experience at the Bridge but his previous chairman at Brighton Tony Bloom recently praised his abilities.

“On the pitch we enjoyed our club’s highest top-flight finish in 121 seasons, as Graham Potter led the team to an excellent ninth-place in the Premier League,” Bloom wrote in his end of financial year report.

“The season’s run-in was particularly impressive as the team picked up eye-catching results at Arsenal and Spurs, before an emphatic home victory over Manchester United. “The Board and I are extremely appreciative of the role Graham and his staff played in helping us further evolve in the Premier League and make significant steps towards our long-term vision of establishing the men’s first team as regular top-ten finishers.

"I take this opportunity to place on record our thanks to Graham, and other key staff who departed to Chelsea, for the excellent job they undertook here.”

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher turned the focus on owner Todd Boehly, comparing his approach with that of predecessor Roman Abramovich.

“Todd said he would be different to Roman,” Carragher posted, alongside laughing emojis.

“I feel for Graham Potter, but it was inevitable. You don’t change Tuchel for Potter. Ridiculous decision to start with.”