Graham Potter has revealed that Chelsea’s poor form in the final weeks before this winter’s World Cup break threatened to sour a getaway with his wife, though managed to work through those feelings and feels supported by the board.
The Blues have dropped to eighth in the Premier League table – one place below Potter’s former club Brighton – after a run of three successive defeats and six games without a win.
Speaking ahead of Chelsea’s return to action against Bournemouth on Tuesday, Potter admitted this torrid run kept playing on his mind while away in California with his wife last month.
“I would rather have gone on holiday with a couple of wins behind me, because I probably would have been better company for my poor wife. As it was, I’m staring into the Pacific Ocean, and she’s thinking about what a wonderful time we’re having, and I’m thinking about Chelsea Football Club,” he said.
“But thankfully she’s been with me long enough to know that that’s how it is, and then you have to use the pain, the frustration, the disappointment of the last few weeks to say, OK, how can we go forward?
“And then, like anything, a bit of distance gives you that time, a bit of perspective, and then it’s about how you can start the process of integrating all the players back and taking the learning of that time and saying OK, we need to show some direction here.”
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Potter then added that he feels fully supported by the board despite this downturn in on-pitch fortunes throughout the autumn.
“[I have] fantastic support. I’m really looking forward to the weeks and the months and the years ahead. We understand where we’re at at the moment and we understand the challenges ahead but that’s where we are in the journey at the moment,” he continued.
“I’m even more confident, even more aware of the support I have now than I was three months ago when I took the job. So that tells you something. It’s a credit to them and their support and how they have communicated with me – it’s been fantastic. We all know the pressure and the demands at this club but we have also got enough people who can see the perspective and where we are at to be able to say, ‘this is where we are, how can we improve?’”