Graham Potter reveals Chelsea players were made to 'sit on the floor' after £300m+ January transfer spree meant there was no space in meeting room

In his first major interview since leaving Chelsea in April 2023, Potter admitted he 'tried to support' the club's transfer policy despite the 'challenge' of keeping his large squad satisfied. However, the record outlay on eight new players during the January transfer window left some stars sitting on the floor during team meetings at Chelsea's training ground.

Potter was sacked just months into his five-year contract despite Chelsea paying a record amount to hire him and his coaching staff in August 2022 and the 49-year-old has been out of work since, keeping a low profile and turning down a number of jobs. Chelsea's scattergun transfer approach continued even after Potter's dismissal, with the Blues signing more than 20 players over the past 18 months.

We tried to support [Chelsea's transfer business] as best we could, but it left us with a challenge of a lot of players after January and then they can’t go anywhere," Potter told The Telegraph. "A few of them just had to sit on the floor.

“It’s not ideal, of course. Everybody recognised it was a really difficult situation because you can only pick 11 players and if you’ve got 20 players not playing, it doesn’t matter where you are. If you can find a coach out there who says: ‘Yeah, that’s the best condition for me,’ I’d be very surprised.”

Potter revealed he has felt ready to return to management "for a while", having turned down multiple jobs in search for the right opportunity. However, the ex-Brighton manager admitted he was more likely to take a job managing a club rather than a country despite being a frontrunner for the England job.