Graham Potter agrees ‘long-term deal’ to take over as head coach at Chelsea — report

Graham Potter is set to be Chelsea’s next head coach after “verbally” agreeing a “long-term deal” with the club, reports Matt Law in the Telegraph.

Meetings with Chelsea co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali evidently went quite well yesterday, with Potter now tying up “loose ends” at Brighton and then coming over to the Bridge for good, and sharpish, with three of his usual staff members in tow. An announcement could be made as soon as this afternoon (Thursday) and the 47-year-old is expected to be in the dugout by the time we kick-off against Fulham on Saturday, 3pm.

The Telegraph’s report adds that Chelsea will be paying Brighton £15m in compensation as per the terms of the release clause in Potter’s contract, which certainly isn’t nothing. Tuchel’s getting about half that as his severance, which is less than initially reported.

This is all happening very fast, especially given the idea of this being the start of a long and happy and fruitful relationship but maybe it’s football-love at first sight, or something.