Chelsea WILL regret sacking Graham Potter - 'Mr Nice Guy' is destined to succeed despite nightmare spell at Stamford Bridge

In October, Potter took over a Chelsea squad that was already bursting at the seams with new faces. Overall, eight summer signings had been made for a total outlay of around £250 million ($307m), while the emergence of Armando Broja and Conor Gallagher as first-team options added further complexity to the situation.

To start with, Potter managed his playing assets pretty well, winning five of his opening six matches in the dugout. This run included a pair of comprehensive Champions League victories over AC Milan.

Admittedly, results did tail off sharply in the run-up to the international break, with a 4-1 away defeat to former club Brighton being a particularly damaging blow. Still, when the Premier League paused for the winter World Cup, Chelsea sat eight points adrift of the top four with a game in hand.

Fans would have expected more at the start of the season, but these sorts of teething problems should be expected when you go for a 'project manager', as Boehly insisted was his intention.

The turning point in Potter's reign was when the January transfer window opened. Some signings were expected, of course, but no one was prepared for this sort of splurge.

By the time the market slammed shut, Boehly and Co had splashed over £300m on EIGHT new players - none of whom had ever made an appearance in the Premier League previously.

It was a truly chaotic time. Every week, Potter would put on a brave face in press conferences, but it soon became clear that he had hardly been consulted in the recruitment process - and he often let slip that this influx of players was disrupting their preparations.

Reports in February suggested that training had been severely affected, with Chelsea's 31-man squad restricting the amount of individual attention coaches could afford players. They couldn't even do 11v11 practice matches, without almost an entire starting XI being left out.

This was just one of the countless issues the new arrivals no doubt caused. Remember the multi-day saga over who would be left out of the Blues' Champions League and Premier League squads? One can only imagine the catastrophic effect this had on dressing room morale.

Even those who did make the cut were always going to be left disappointed thanks to the unevenness of the Blues' resources.

To fill just three 'forward' spots, Chelsea currently have 10 players. They are, deep breath, Noni Madueke, Kai Havertz, David Datro Fofana, Hakim Ziyech, Raheem Sterling, Mykhailo Mudryk, Joao Felix, Christian Pulisic, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mason Mount.

It put Potter in an unmanageable situation, and although he did make mistakes - with some of his selections raising eyebrows - it is hard to see how he could have pieced together a winning team with such a bloated attacking pool.

It seems implausible, but despite all of their spending, Chelsea were still left short in some positions at key points in the season.

The absences of Ben Chilwell and Reece James were most damaging. Lewis Hall will likely go on to have a solid Premier League career, but the Blues youngster was forced to play out of position at left-back in January due to Marc Cucurella's struggles on and off the pitch. It is telling that Hall has since been entirely absent from Chelsea's matchday squad as he continues his development in the Under-23s.

An ageing Cesar Azpilicueta was deployed on the opposite flank. Without the explosiveness of James and Chilwell - and with the forward line still building up their relationship - Chelsea were ponderous and predictable going forward in the period after the World Cup.

Potter is not blameless in this, as the Blues seemed to lack any pre-planned patterns in the final third a lot of the time, but again this was largely a result of the conditions imposed on him rather than an inherent failing of him as a coach.

Injuries out wide weren't the only problem. N'Golo Kante - still one of the best defensive midfielders in the world on his day - has played just three times in the Premier League this season.

Like it or not, optics matter in football, and Potter never looked like a Chelsea manager.

This is a club whose most-revered coach is Jose Mourinho - master of media mind games and tactical pragmatism. The Blues' post-Abramovich-takeover identity has been that of ruthless winners. The football and people's feelings are secondary, all that matters is results.

That is what made Antonio Conte such a perfect fit - for one season at least - and made Maurizio Sarri stick out like a sore thumb.

Although Boehly had seemed to be taking a different tact, hiring a young, modern coach and largely signing players for the future, in the end, he could not turn the tide of a fanbase that has gorged on success for close to two decades.

'Mr Nice Guy' Potter attracted the ire of fans for his upbeat positive press conferences throughout his reign. He was always quick to insist "the boys gave everything today", even after an embarrassing defeat, and his much-maligned mention of that most-debated of metrics, 'xG', following his side's defeat to Villa was a fitting parting comment.

His cool-as-ice touchline persona wasn't much appreciated either. So much so that he even had to defend himself, using a rather odd analogy.

“This isn’t actually me all the time,” he said before his side's embarrassing 4-0 defeat to Manchester City in the FA Cup. “Of course there are times where you get angry.” He looked down at the table and picked up a can of water before adding: “It’s not like I’m some robot just speaking to this can all the time.”

"I’ve got to answer them as best as I can and respectfully as I can because I represent a fantastic football club," he continued. "I’ve got that job to do regardless of if I’m p*ssed off after a game. I have to come here and represent Chelsea in the best way."

Potter may have thought he was being true to himself by handling questions respectfully, but it was out of step with what onlookers associated with a successful Chelsea manager.

This question can only really be answered after the Chelsea board and fans decide what they want the club to be as they head into the 2020s.

Potter's arrival gave Boehly the opportunity to shift their perception from win at all costs, to something a little more longer-term, while his sacking - and Tuchel's dismissal before that - suggests that Chelsea's new owner will be delivering more of the same at Stamford Bridge.

There is nothing inherently wrong with that, aside from the toll that Potter's exit will add to the club's already stretched finances, with threats of punishments for breaching financial rules looming.

This hire-and-fire approach has delivered Chelsea numerous domestic titles and a pair of Champions Leagues. However, there was a genuine sense that things might change in west London when Boehly took over. With an improved stadium supposedly coming soon and many top-level clubs - at least publicly - insisting that they desire a Guardiola-esque 'identity' as football continues to compete with other entertainment options in the 'content' matrix, Potter seemed like the solution to drive Chelsea forward into a new era.

Should their next appointment also struggle to piece together this chaotic squad, Boehly may live to regret not trusting the process of a man who he paid an astronomical fee to buy out of his Brighton contract just six months ago.

Leicester City are long-term admirers of Potter, and he seemed to be the perfect fit for the club after they parted ways with the long-serving Brendan Rodgers just a few hours before his own sacking was made public.

Reports suggest that he has already turned down an offer from the Foxes as he plans to take a break from the game, but there is no doubt that once he is ready to return, there will be no shortage of opportunities for him to explore.

He has worked incredibly hard to reach this point in his career, bravely building his reputation off the beaten track in Sweden and establishing himself as one of the best English coaches since returning to the country of his birth.

Joining a club such as Leicester, away from such intense media scrutiny, should allow him to build something and seems like the next logical step.

There is another possibility, though. Tottenham are also looking for a coach and considered Potter for their vacant managerial position before their ill-fated decision to hand Nuno Espirito Santo the reins.

Potter would follow in the tradition of deposed Chelsea managers by landing in north London, but his prospects are dependent on what Julian Nagelsmann and Mauricio Pochettino decide to do this summer.

One thing is for certain, though, expect to see Potter back in management by the beginning of next season - if not before.