Chelsea eye Premier League boss as ‘desirable contingency’ to replace Graham Potter

Will Ford
Manager Thomas Frank greets the Brentford mascot before they face Bournemouth.

Chelsea are reportedly eyeing Brentford manager Thomas Frank should Graham Potter be shown the door at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea are tenth in the Premier League despite spending nearly £600m on new players since the end of last season and a report on Monday claimed Potter is on thin ice.

The former Brighton boss was reported to have two games – home fixtures against Leeds and Borussia Dortmund – to save his job.

That report was later rubbished by The Guardian, with Chelsea’s owners, Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, still said to want to give Potter time to turn things around.

They are aware of the difficulty in adding so many new players to the squad and ‘their ambition from early in this poor sequence of results has been to give Potter next summer to benefit from a pre-season, a recalibration of the squad and the addition of the forward Christopher Nkunku from RB Leipzig’.

It’s also said that they ‘like the calm way Potter is going about his business’ and don’t want to rip up their blueprint having built a structure around him.

But Football Insider claim Frank is being lined up as ‘a desirable contingency option and is now a top contender to be the next manager’.

The report states that Frank’s ‘playing style, relationship with the media, and track record of developing young players into Premier League stars have been identified as strengths by the board at Stamford Bridge.’

Frank signed a contract extension in December last year, committing him to the club until 2027.


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His Brentford side are currently 9th in the Premier League, four points ahead of Chelsea who have won just two of their last 15 Premier League games.

Last season was their first in the Premier League and they are punching well above their weight with one of the smallest budgets in the top flight.

Potter’s job is safe for now with the owners continuing to back him, but the Chelsea fans have shown themselves to be less patient (and abhorrent) with Potter revealing on Friday that he had received emails wishing him and his children dead.