Graham Potter coaching staff confirmed as Hilário, Anthony Barry retain roles

New Chelsea head coach Graham Potter’s coaching staff has been confirmed, though the recently redesigned official website currently seems to be lacking a profile section for any player or coach, so all we have is the one news item confirming their appointments.

As per that post, as well as previous stories of Potter’s switch, the first-team coaches who have joined from Brighton & Hove Albion alongside him are Billy Reid, Björn Hamberg, and Bruno Saltor, while Anthony Barry is also retained. All four are referred to as “assistant coach” in the announcement.

Ben Roberts is the fourth coach to join, and he’s a new goalkeeper coach to work alongside Hilário, who’s retained despite not having a “B” in his name. Hilário’s now easily our longest-serving coach, having been part of the staff since 2014 following his retirement and elevated to head goalkeeping coach in 2019 under Frank Lampard. Overall, he’s been with the team since 2006. (Good news: The Daily Hilário can continue!)

Presumably all other medical and support staff have been retained, including long-time employees like head doctor Paco Biosca (since 2011), analyst James Melbourne (since 2005), or physios Steve Hughes and Billy “Blood” McCulloch (both 2001) — and many others who don’t get their names in the papers.

The fifth new staff member to arrive is Kyle Macaulay, who “joins in a recruitment role and will act as a conduit between that area and the coaching staff”. He’s basically an extension of Potter, but for non-coaching responsibilities.

“Kyle is one of my members of staff who’s been with me for 10 years. He’s really important in terms of recruitment so a lot of the conversations that you need between ownership and board can be had via him because he knows me well.

“He knows how we want to play and he knows the culture and environment. Those conversations are often time-consuming so he’s really important for me. That’s not to say I don’t try to help the club in terms of making decisions around transfers but my main job is to help the players that are here, to help them improve and put a team on the pitch that our supporters are proud of.”

-Graham Potter; source: Chelsea FC

Thomas Tuchel could’ve used someone like that, too!

Macaualay, Hamberg, and Reid all have worked with Potter for about a decade, starting at Östersunds and moving with him to Swansea, Brighton, and now Chelsea. Bruno Saltor joined the crew in 2019 upon his retirement from playing, while Roberts was already at Brighton when Potter arrived. Roberts had previously also served as goalkeeper coach at Charlton Athletic, and even faced Chelsea during his playing career, in the 1997 FA Cup final with Middlesbrough!

Welcome, all! I’d say let’s get to work, but obviously that already happened.