Which way now for 'one-hit wonder' Graham Potter as England go for Thomas Tuchel - opinion

Chelsea's English head coach Graham Potter lasted seven months at Stamford BridgeChelsea's English head coach Graham Potter lasted seven months at Stamford Bridge
Chelsea's English head coach Graham Potter lasted seven months at Stamford Bridge
Ian Hart on what now for former Brighton and Chelsea boss Graham Potter?

So, Thomas Tuchel it is! (has anyone broke it gently to the five Reform MP’s yet?)

Whilst Lee Carsley should be commended for his admirable “caretaker job”, I think it’s fairly apparent that this has all been put together long before England’s defeat to Greece at Wembley last week.

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I’m not saying Carsley couldn’t have done the job, but clearly Tuchel’s CV is there for all to see. He is a winner, despite his blip in the Bundesliga last season, and with the players at his disposal, are we after 58 years and counting of hurt, finally going to see the national team reach its full potential?

But it’s the “runners up” that have also thrown up a few questions, and judging by the apparent xenophobia all over social media, I had to check the date to see if D-Day was eight years ago rather than 80. A large number of people did want an English manager to get the job.

Of the four English managers currently working in the EPL, you could safely rule-out Russell Martin, Sean Dyche and Gary O’Neil, who currently have far more pressing matters to address. Then there’s Eddie Howe at Newcastle who probably knew that his time could still come a few years down the line.

But perhaps it’s the one other English candidate, currently unemployed, that prompts both debate and speculation.

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It’s somewhat ironic that when Chelsea’s impetuous American owner, Todd Boehley, sacked Tuchel in Sept 2022, and almost immediately replaced him with Brighton’s Graham Potter, no one could have foreseen the irony just two years later.

Footballing “Sliding doors” and all that. I’m of the opinion that if Chelsea had never sacked Tuchel and Potter would have stayed at Brighton – still building his CV – he would be the one being lauded by the media outside Wembley stadium.

Financially, Potter probably did very well at Chelsea, but in employment terms is he in danger of almost becoming a managerial “one-hit wonder”, the Chesney Hawkes of football?

I’ve no doubt the FA would have considered him, but whilst his tenure at Brighton in the main was positive, and placed his stock high enough for Chelsea to take a chance, his time at Stamford Bridge almost prompts more questions than answers (for people of a certain age, a Johnny Nash scenario).

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Messrs. Alan Curbishley and Alan Pardew and countless others will testify that if, either by choice or circumstances, you jump off the managerial merry-go-round, it can be difficult, almost impossible to get back on it.

He really needs to take a job, however challenging, sooner rather than later. Otherwise, in another 12 months, he might have just become Graham Who? A bit like dear old Chesney Hawkes.

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