Regular guy can put the heart back in gormless machine

After Hollywood farce at Chelsea and two years out of game, rags-to-riches manager has seized chance to join 'family club' that he can improve immediately

- Jonathan Liew

Remember Angrygate? For a few surreal days in February 2023, pretty much the entire talking apparatus of English football was engaged – as is its habit – in a fevered, earnest and yet entirely fatuous debate about whether Graham Potter was angry enough to be the Chelsea manager.

Under an increasingly persistent line of questioning, Potter coped pretty well. He firmly pointed out that you do not go from the ninth tier to one of the biggest clubs in the world without a certain ruthless streak. He subtly rebuked the hypocrisy of the media for demanding greater touchline theatrics from Premier League managers and then pontificating about the culture of abuse towards grassroots referees. So subtly, in fact, that the media blissfully ignored that bit.

The irony, as would become apparent in Potter’s later interviews, was that he really was angry. And frustrated, and embittered, and ultimately humiliated, as a coach hired for a world-record compensation fee was sacked after six months of pure, reckless chaos. A packed schedule. A winter World Cup. New signings being forced to sit on the floor and change in corridors. Rookie owners prone to giving dressing-room speeches or occasionally forgetting the number of players in a football team.