Graham Potter sacked? The media is starting to salivate at idea of Chelsea bloodbath

Chelsea are being urged and tipped to sack Graham Potter, though nobody can find anybody to say it so they just pretend…

Stiff middle fingers
That was pretty poor from Chelsea at Manchester City but sorry, not having this from The Sun:

‘Man City 4 Chelsea 0: Injury-ravaged Blues humiliated by second-string hosts in FA Cup nightmare as fans turn on Potter’

Of City’s most-used 10 outfield players this season, five started against Chelsea on Sunday. Second string, our collective arses.

And of the players from outside that elite list, multiple-title-winning defensive pair Kyle Walker and Aymeric Laporte’s seasons have been curtailed by injury and Julian Alvarez is back-up to the world’s deadliest finisher and he has just won the actual World Cup.

Some sodding second string.

There will be blood
Scenting managerial blood, The Sun website go again with this humdinger of a headline:

‘Chelsea legend Frank Leboeuf calls for Graham Potter to be SACKED after Man City drubbing as he slams ‘shameful’ stars’

SACKED, you say?

‘CHELSEA legend Frank Leboeuf has called for boss Graham Potter to be sacked after just four months at the helm.’

The slight problem? Leboeuf said absolutely nothing of the sort.

What he did say was “Mr Potter, enough is enough now, something needs to be changed”, which suggests that any change he is demanding is Potter’s to make. And we don’t think Potter will SACK himself.

And yes, we see you MailOnline, pretending the same:

”Enough is ENOUGH’: Chelsea icon Frank Leboeuf calls for Graham Potter to be SACKED, slams ‘gutless’ stars Mason Mount and Kai Havertz and says Jorginho should be cast off in stunning outburst’

You can use as many capital letters as you want; he still didn’t actually say it.

Who wants to be a millionaire flop?
There’s obviously mileage in Graham Potter sack talk, which is how you get headlines like these in the Daily Star:

‘Graham Potter ‘can’t survive much more humiliation’ before getting Chelsea sack’

Those little marks in the air are quote marks, traditionally used to mark quotes. So who is the headline quoting?

‘It’s difficult to see how much more humiliation Graham Potter can survive.’

That’s literally how Jeremy Cross’ match report begins. So the headline to a match report is quoting the actual match report now? And a terrible match report at that…

‘If the Chelsea boss thought the FA Cup would be a welcome distraction from his side’s Premier League woes, then how wrong he was.’

His Chelsea side were playing Premier League champions Manchester City with a raft of injuries so no, he didn’t think that.

‘Instead, Potter and his millionaire flops suffered more pain as a second string Manchester City team brushed them aside with utter disdain at the Etihad to cruise into the FA Cup fourth round.’

Second string is of course bollocks but ‘millionaire flops’? We think you might have to excuse Trevoh Chalobah, Bashir Humphreys, Lewis Hall and Conor Gallagher from that ludicrous description.

Buffalo stance
If there’s anybody who should know what is actually going on with Chelsea and Graham Potter it is surely London football experts football.london and they are keen to bring you all the news…

‘Chelsea news and transfers LIVE: Potter sacking stance, Hazard return, Mudryk offer, Thuram price’

And what, pray tell, is this ‘Potter sacking stance’ you are promising t0 bring us LIVE on this rainy Monday morning after Chelsea lost 4-0 to Manchester City?

‘Chelsea’s board remain confident that Graham Potter can turn things around at the club, reports the Telegraph.’

And when did the Telegraph report this?

On Friday, two days before they lost 4-0 to Manchester City, of course.

LIVE!

Tips out for the lads
We are not averse to using bookmakers’ odds for content but what you absolutely should do is, well, tell people you are using bookmakers’ odds for content. Like this.

What you really shouldn’t do is very strongly imply inside knowledge just because you want to get ‘Graham Potter’ and ‘sacked’ in the same headline.

‘Graham Potter tipped to be sacked by Chelsea after Man City loss as Todd Boehly’s patience tested’

No, football.london, Potter has not been ‘tipped to be sacked’, he has simply been backed in to second-favourite by ordinary people who suspect that Chelsea might dismiss a manager who has lost five of his last seven games.

No f***er has ‘tipped’ it. Not even Frank Lebouef.

It ain’t Auba ’til it’s Auba
Over at the Mirror, they know exactly what they are doing with this nonsense:

‘Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang left out of Chelsea squad after blunt message to Graham Potter’

It takes five paragraphs to make it clear that Aubameyang was ‘left out’ of the Chelsea squad because he was injured.

And nine paragraphs to explain that the ‘blunt message’ came not from the Gabonese striker but from ‘managerial legend Neil Warnock’.

File under ‘shameless dick move’.