“He’ll probably think ‘These lot are mad’” – Gary Neville claims Graham Potter may have asked to be sacked by Chelsea as he names best replacement 

Manchester United legend Gary Neville has made an interesting claim about former Chelsea boss Graham Potter. The Blues recently announced that they relieved Potter of his duties as the first team coach. Potter, who took charge of the club in September. was at the helm for 31 games.

The former Brighton & Hove Albion manager won 12, lost 11 and drew eight as the Blues manager. The team failed to get going under Potter and were noticeably inconsistent throughout his tenure.

Neville has said that Potter, being the honourable man he is, might not have been enjoying what was going on at the club. He added that Potter might have asked the Chelsea chiefs to sack him. The former Manchester United defender said (via Express);

"Graham Potter is a good man. I reckon when we will have gone home I bet there is an element of relief. I don't think he was enjoying it there. I bet he will have thought it was mad. What he has been used to in terms of what his view of football is, he will have seen what is going on behind the scenes - they lost Petr Cech and Marina Granovskaia at the start of the season; that wasn't planned."

Neville added:

"They lost (Thomas) Tuchel; that wasn't planned. He has come into a club that is in massive transition; they have paid millions of pounds; they don't know what they are doing; to be fair, they are learning on the job. He'll probably think 'These lot are mad', and actually I suspect that Graham Potter has gone to Winstanley and said: 'Get me out of here'."

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Gary Neville names Graham Potter's ideal successor at Chelsea

There are big names like Julian Nagelsmann, Zinedine Zidane who have been linked with the Chelsea job.

Neville, though, believes that former Tottenham Hotspur and Paris Saint-Germain boss Mauricio Pochettino is the right man to carry the Blues' project forward, saying:

"If they sign (Zinedine) Zidane, (Diego) Simeone, Enrique, they are going to want another £300m because they won't like some of the players they have signed. They have got to appoint a manager that is going to inherit and like the squad they have already got. I think that man, because a lot of them are young, is Pochettino."

The Blues have spent £600 million this season. Despite the heavy investment, the club failed to get the desired results under Potter. Whether the next Chelsea manager can turn their fortunes around or not remains to be seen. Bruno Saltor will be in charge of the club on an interim basis.