Brighton development manager Steve Sidwell believes Chelsea get a coaching gem if they appoint him as a replacement for Thomas Tuchel.
Tuchel was dismissed following Chelsea’s loss to Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League, with Potter the favorite to replace him.
talkSPORT understands the Blues are confident owner Todd Boehly will be able to name the Englishman as his first managerial appointment since taking over the team earlier this year.
Potter, 47, is in his fourth season as Seagulls boss, impressing last term when he secured ninth place in the Premier League, the club’s highest in the football pyramid.
Coming from Swansea in 2019, the former Southampton defender had a fascinating career trajectory in management, taking Swedish side Ostersund from fourth tier to top flight and the Europa League before returning to England .
Now he looks set for another jump at Stamford Bridge, with fellow manager and former Chelsea midfielder Sidwell explaining why Potter is ready to take the plunge.
Speaking about the mental side of his management, Sidwell explained: “It’s more on the level of confidence, a confidence. He listens to his players and the players also trust the process.
“His emotional intelligence is by far the best I’ve ever seen in terms of reacting and interacting with players.
“His tactical awareness in the game and the way his teams have been put together is also phenomenal. I think overall a coach and as a person he fits the bill.
“The emotional intelligence that he has in terms of coaching, but also that little arm around the shoulder, that little walk from the training ground to the pitches, the golden nuggets, the little nuggets that he just to drop. He just picks up players.
“I spoke to Adam Lallana and Danny Welbeck the other day after the Leicester game, they just praised him. They said their workload, trusting the process, the days off, it just picked up the players. It makes the players trust the manager. And when you’re confident as a player, you feel like you can go out and do anything.
Sidwell himself made a similar leap to what Potter is likely to make, swapping Reading for Chelsea as a player in 2007.
The former midfielder knows the pressures will be different for Potter, and he’s also going into an environment with a very different management structure above him.
A change in ownership has brought some instability to Chelsea, which Tuchel has often commented on, and Sidwell thinks Potter will have to be careful.
“It’s literally about winning,” he explained. “That’s what Chelsea is about. It’s about winning titles, winning games week after week.
“He doesn’t have that pressure on the heads of Brighton owners, even though he would demand that of himself to win games week in and week out.
“He will feel the pressure and when you feel the pressure, you might make decisions that you normally couldn’t make in a more comfortable environment.
“If he goes, he will get tested. It will be tested to the point where it is probably spinning more plates currently than it is doing.
“You look at his work at Brighton and everything is lined up at Brighton. You have Tony Bloom, fantastic owner, Paul Barber under him, Dan Ashworth, when he was there recruiting.
“It let Potts really focus and do his training and just focus on preparing for games.
“Now going to Chelsea where it has to be said at the moment it’s not lined up, from owners to technical directors, football directors, recruitment, even the academies are a different kettle fish.”
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