BREAKING NEWS: Former Chelsea FLOP manager Graham Potter is about to become the manager of one of the biggest clubs in the world.
Graham Potter ‘is the FAVOURITE to become Nice’s new manager’ with the sacked Chelsea boss set for a return to football in France… but club owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s ‘attempt to buy Man United is slowing down hiring process’
Potter has been out of work since being sacked by the Blues in April but is now thought to be top of the Ligue 1 club’s shortlist to succeed Didier Digard.
The former Brighton manager is said to be favoured by INEOS’s director of sport Dave Brailsford, who would be interested in installing a British manager at the Cote d’Azur club.
Thiago Motta, who manages Serie A side Bologna, is candidate to take over from Digard preferred by INEOS sport’s chief executive Jean-Claude Blanc – but as the former Paris Saint-Germain player is in contention to take over from Christophe Galtier should the ex-Nice manager be handed his marching orders in the French capital, Potter may have the edge.
However, while Potter is seen to be the favourite, reports from Get French Football News are claiming that any potential hiring of Potter is being held up by club’s INEOS ownership’s bid to buy Manchester United.
British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, whose company INEOS took over Nice since 2019, is currently bidding alongside Sheikh Jassim of Qatar for control of Man United, with Ratcliffe believed to be in the driving seat.
And while Potter is in line for a return to the touchline, Nice captain has issued a stark warning to anyone wanting to work under Ratcliffe.
Nice skipper Dante sensationally offered a warning to United by publicly criticising the hierarchy at the club, which includes Ratcliffe.
They have gone through five managers in four seasons, and currently sit ninth in Ligue 1 after a turbulent campaign.
Club captain Dante has now hit out at the lack of coherence from Ratcliffe and the hierachy at Nice, as he told L’Equipe: ‘I think at some point you have to be clear in what you’re saying.
To maintain a project, maybe you need to speak less about objectives and work in silence to create an environment of competitors. Because the expectation is even bigger, and then after, people are frustrated.
‘The best thing to do is to prepare as quickly as possible for next season in order to start it well
Ratcliffe aimed to turn Nice into a side that could challenge Paris Saint-Germain’s dominance in France, but that has not been the case so far.
Lucien Favre brought in a number of big-name players at the start of the season including Aaron Ramsey, Kasper Schmeichel and Ross Barkley, but the manager was sacked in January after Nice were knocked out of the Coupe de France by a third-division side.
‘Do you remember how many players came in at the end of the transfer window last summer?’ Dante continued. ‘Six left, six arrived. It’s difficult in these conditions. Simply, we mustn’t make the same errors.’
‘If someone wants my opinion, the earlier we organise ourselves, the better it will be. If we want to aim higher, we have to anticipate things and put the values of the organisation in place.
‘When the coach [Lucien Favre] arrived, we said in two years that we would always be in the Champions League. It doesn’t work like that. Ligue 1 is very difficult.
We lost 10 players, 10 arrived. The teams in the semi-finals of big competitions play together for three, four years. We changed everything last summer. There is a lack of coherence somewhere. I am sorry to say that.’
While Potter has been warned by taking the reigns at Nice, the 48-year-old will no doubt wish for a change of scenery after a torrid nine months in west London.
Potter’s stint in charge of Chelsea saw the manager record the worst points-per-game tally of any Chelsea coach the Premier League era as he grappled with a lack of pre-season, a burgeoning injury crisis that saw him without starters including Reece James, Ben Chilwell and Thiago Silva, and an ever-growing squad bloated with transfers from the January window.
His reign at Stamford Bridge was succeeded by an astonishingly brief turn from his assistant Bruno Saltor before Frank Lampard was parachuted in to oversee the remainder of the team’s 2022-23 campaign.
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