Chelsea, Potter shock: ‘The fans told me they want to see my children die’

Death threats emailed against him and his children by Chelsea fans. His fans. It is the shocking denunciation of Graham Potter, the coach who has been at the helm of the Blues since September and who since after the World Cup has become the man that fans consider the number one reason for the team’s difficulties, tenth in the Premier League standings. “I feel the support of the owners and some of the fans, but recently I received messages via email wishing me dead. And they wished my children death ”denounced the 47-year-old technician, to whom the company offered all the support he had.

In the viewfinder

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Potter has long been in the crosshairs. After a honeymoon-like start, Chelsea have embarked on a downward spiral that has confined them to 10th in the table, bottoming out with a defeat at Stamford Bridge last week to bottom-of-the-table Southampton, at the end of which the stadium booed the team and the coach. The criticisms went much further during the week: Potter told of an email that particularly disturbed him, the worst of the threats received, in which his children were not called by name but with a vulgar pseudonym. “It’s not nice to go to work and feel offended by someone – said the coach -. I could say I don’t care but I would be lying and it would be easy to figure it out. I want to succeed here and I am convinced that I can succeed, and I don’t understand where this belief that I don’t care came from. Ask my family if I don’t care, if my life since I’ve been in London has been pleasant for me and for them: I’ll tell you: it hasn’t been pleasant at all. I understand that the fans are not satisfied because their team does not win, but I assure you that my life in the last 3-4 months has not been pleasant at all, apart from the fact that I am grateful for this experience and appreciate its greatness.

The challenge

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Despite the threats, Potter remains convinced that he is the right man to make Chelsea great again. And the club is also convinced of this, which has no intention of changing helmsman again, even if qualification for the Champions League does not arrive at the end of the season. “The world is hard for everyone: there’s a war, the energy crisis, the cost of living, strikes every other week – he says -: everyone is having a hard time and nobody cares about the poor Premier coach. But it’s hard here too, you suffer here too, only that you can’t reveal your emotions in public. My job is to do my best for the team and act with integrity and in the way that I think is right: I am like this, I don’t want to be someone else and I want to continue to be: I would be fake if I acted otherwise. I will continue to do my best, and if it’s not enough, I’ll have to accept it.” Chelsea are guests of Tottenham on Sunday, in a derby in which they have historically always obtained positive results but in which they start as an underdog. Potter needs results, also to ward off absurd criticisms that shouldn’t exist in the world of football.