The last 7 managers to switch Premier League clubs mid-season
Mid-season managerial swaps are rare but not entirely unknown in Premier League history; there have been only seven this century! Unai Emery leaving Aston Villa for Manchester United would be by far the most sensational of all these moves.
Sometimes the grass is very much greener on the other side, and other times you'd find more greenery in the six-yard box of a non-league pitch during winter. Here's the last seven times a manager swapped one Premier League club for another and how it panned out: Graham Potter: Brighton to Chelsea, September 2022 Graham Potter's trajectory was only going one way before Chelsea.
He was an English coach who had succeeded abroad, which a) made him very cool and b) earned him a move back to the UK. A year in south Wales and Brighton poached him to make him the face of their continued rise up the English football pyramid, but like the Fast and Furious meme that shows two cars taking different paths, the subsequent fortunes of the seaside club and the manager could hardly have been more stark.
In fairness to him, Potter joined Chelsea at the peak of BlueCo's madness. The club had just spent over £250m on nine players in a single window, of which just one player is currently at the club, and the far more experienced Thomas Tuchel had only worked with Todd Boehly and co.
for a few months before their relationship broke down to such an extent that he was fired. But while there are mitigating factors behind his failure, Potter also deserves a whole heap of the blame.
He tried to bring the tactical flexibility that had suited Brighton to Chelsea, who frankly did not want to hear it. He went from addressing dressing rooms bereft of major egos to one dominated by them.
He also seemed to buy into his own hype, dressing smartly and having a 'glow up'. He lost almost as many games as he won and was sacked after seven months.
For a manager who was in Sweden just four years previously, you cannot blame Potter for jumping at the first Big Six opportunity that came his way, but Chelsea was the worst environment for him to join. It was lose-lose for club and manager with Potter failing to rebuild his reputation at West Ham and now back in Sweden, in charge of the national team where he is seen through a far kinder lens.
The only winners in this were Brighton, who were given a whole heap of money and appointed a better manager in Roberto De Zerbi. Brighton record at time of his departure: 4th W4 D1 L1 F11 A5 Pts 13 Chelsea record at time of appointment: 6th W3 D1 L2 F8 A9 Pts 10 Brighton record since departure to end of season: 8th W14 D7 L11 F161 A48 Pts 49 Chelsea record from appointment to end of season: 14th W8 D10 L14 F30 A39 Pts 34 Brighton final position: 6th (down 2) Chelsea final position: 12th (down 6) Alan Pardew: Newcastle United to Crystal Palace, December 2014 As far as toxic relationships go, there are few more poisonous than late-stage Pardew and Newcastle.