Place – American Express Community Stadium. Time – Saturday afternoon. Challengers – Chelsea FC. A cherry on top – is Graham Potter.
There is a common phrase: “return of the prodigal son.” But he is no son. He is a misfit. English football coach who doesn’t believe in long balls, goals only from set-pieces, and forces his team to play a passing game to score. With no exceptions who are on the opposite side of the field.
He is a rockstar. A coach who maintains to hold his team in the league with no big-name signings while selling first-team players every summer. Never looks for excuses and never complains, he just puts his head down and looks for solutions.
He is a Visionaire. In the summer of 2021. Brighton sold first-team defender Ben White to Arsenal for a staggering €58,5 million (while his market value was half of that). Did he look for a replacement? No. Because a year before, he brought Joel Veltman from Ajax for €1 million. Instead, he used a small part of that money to sign a left-back from Getafe, Marc Cucurella, for €18 million (now that’s a prodigal son for Catalunya, but those were the days of poor transfer plans for Barcelona). The irrational move by Potter? Yeah, after only a year at Brighton, Marc changed his blue and white shirt for a blue only, going to Stamford Bridge for €65,3 million – almost four times more than his incoming transfer to Brighton!!!
This Saturday afternoon we have a special match for football fans. Not only a game, a reunion. Chelsea is coming to Brighton, but the fans will not look at the left side of the opponent’s defense in search of a Spaniard. No, they will look for the opponent’s bench.
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Chelsea started a season with Tomas Tuchel, the man who made an unlikely success when he won the Champions League in 20/21. The man who was there when England decided that they didn’t want Russian petro-rubles (anymore) and overthrew the creator of the modern-day giant named Chelsea FC. Instead, the club was handed to a consortium with Todd Boehly at the helm.
A newly created dynamic duo named Tuchel and Boehly were the authors of one of the craziest transfer summers. Ever. They had the unfortunate departures of center-backs Rudiger and Christensen on a free transfer, and that was a problem they tried to resolve with the likes of Jules Kunde, Nathan Ake, Presnel Kimpembe, and Matthijs de Ligt. They brought none of them, Man City, PSG, Bayern Munich, and especially Barcelona had different plans. Barcelona terrorized Chelsea on the market, signing their targets like Jules Kunde, Raphinha, and Lewandowski and taking their players Christensen and Alonso. Also convinced their own Ousmane Dembele to stay rather than go to London. They even wanted Azpilicueta, who opted to stay.
Chelsea decided to answer that with an incoming transfer of – Cucurella? Magnificent player but a left-back, a position occupied at that moment by Ben Chilwell, Marcos Alonso, and Emerson Palmieri. Strange decision number 1. Then they splashed the cash on Napoli’s rock in the defense, Kalidou Koulibaly, and injury-prone Wesley Fofana for a total of almost €120 million.
After that, they decided they didn’t need Lukaku anymore (who arrived a year before) and Timo Werner also. Michy Batshuayi was also shown the exit, as he was no longer a “talented player” at the age of 28. But wait, who will play in the striker position!? Tuchel had an answer, German wonder boy – Kai Havertz. Strange decision number 2, apparently.
The team was refreshed with the arrivals of Sterling, players who returned from successful loans like Gallagher and Broja. But a new striker was nowhere to be found. Enter stage – Aubameyang. Tuchel decided to renew their cooperation while Chelsea fans shook their head in disbelief.
Result – Tuchel got sacked after the UCL Dinamo Zagreb game, in which he lost 1-0.
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Last year Brighton ended the campaign in 9th place. They started the season phenomenally with a low-cost replacement for Cucurella named Pervis Estupinan. Groβ and Trossard were playing at the Champions League level, and the team was at an all-time high. But Chelsea needed a solution, and Brighton’s manager was the perfect answer. Potter replaced Tuchel in September, reunited with Cucurella after a few months, and Chelsea is playing football again.
In a 3-5-2 formation, after the international break, he managed to stay unbeaten in both competitions. Achieving six wins and three draws, Chelsea is scoring and climbing again. They advanced from the UCL Group stage and are 5th in Premier League. They are strong in defense (Potter’s signature), great in the midfield even with all the injuries (Kante), and superb in offense (Mount and Havertz). A favorite for the weekend clash, for sure.
So, on Saturday, King and a Knight are coming back to Brighton. They are coming back to win and sadden all those fans they brought joy to last season. Will they be applauded upon their return? They must be, it’s not every day King is returning. Trossard, Welbeck, and Groβ will try to show him they still remember what he taught them. But the King knows all the weaknesses of his old army. He recruited them, trained them, and now he will do his best to defeat them. If a striker won’t celebrate a goal against his former team, what will a King do on Saturday?
Let’s watch.
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