Micah Richards has claimed that Todd Boehly cannot be to blame for the failure that became of Graham Potter’s reign at Chelsea.
The BBC pundit argued with Chris Sutton on ‘The Monday Night Club’ that the owner strengthened the squad more than enough for them to be higher than 11th in the Premier League right now.
The decision was made over the weekend to put Potter out of his misery at Stamford Bridge, after months of dire domestic form.
Defeat to Aston Villa which saw them drop into the bottom half of the table made Boehly’s mind up, despite consistent backing through hard times.
The American has not been short of his critics since taking over the club from Roman Abramovich, however this managerial change will be universally more popular than the one to replace Thomas Tuchel.
Sutton believes Boehly is at fault however, saying: “The bottom line with Chelsea as far as I’m concerned is that this isn’t Potter’s mess, this is Boehly’s mess. He was Boehly’s man.”
Richards defends Boehly
Richards firmly disagrees, saying: “How is this Boehly’s mess? Please explain to me how this is Boehly’s mess, he’s bought some unbelievable players.”
The conversation continued. Sutton said: “Because Boehly has stuck with him when all the talk is that the previous owner would have sacked Potter. No doubt about that, that was Chelsea’s previous model. But Boehly actually and I thought to his credit said that Potter is my guy, I’m going to stick with him.
“And he hasn’t found the right balance, I’d accept that, but why would you sack him at this stage when you were never going to get in the top four places anyway? It’s just sheer panic.”
Richards ended with: “Chelsea are 11th in the Premier League. They spent £300 million in January. We can’t make excuses for that, surely!”
While the idea of Potter leading Chelsea to glory seemed nice, the decision to end his time had to be made, with the next man in charge crucial to get right.
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