Graham Potter: Chelsea sacking might have been the best thing for me | OneFootball

West Ham boss returns to Stamford Bridge for first time since leaving Blues

Graham Potter says his sacking at Chelsea might have been for the best.

Potter was sacked in April 2023 with the Blues 11th in the Premier League table, having lost 11 of his 31 matches in charge.

He returns to the dugout at Stamford Bridge on Monday night when his West Ham side are the visitors in the Premier League.

Asked whether he might have fared better if he’d had more recent Chelsea signings available to him, he replied: “Yeah, but that's life and there's nothing I can do about that.

Potter added that he has no hard feelings about how things ended at Chelsea, but admitted his sacking may ultimately prove to be the best thing for him.

“Just like everybody in life, you can have good things and bad things and they make you better if you use them in the right way, and I've done that and so therefore I'm grateful for the experience. I'm grateful for the time at Chelsea because it's brought me here and I'm obviously happy about that.

“No, I don't think so,” he said, when asked whether he will be looking for closure on Monday night. “Of course I would have wanted it to go better. Absolutely. I didn't want to lose my job.

“But at the same time, I look back now and maybe it's the best thing that happened to me and maybe the next 10–20 years are going to be great because of the experience I've had.

“I've got no bad feelings towards Chelsea, still got a lot of good relationships with the people there. I wish them well, apart from when we play them.

“Sometimes the experiences that are more traumatic and the more tougher and the more intense, they're the ones that can make the biggest difference in terms of growth and development.”