According to The Athletic, Manchester United turned down the opportunity to hire Graham Potter as head coach twice.
Graham Potter was on the shortlist to be the next Manchester United manager before Erik ten Hag was appointed, but the club decided against the now-Chelsea manager.
The former Brighton manager was named as Thomas Tuchel’s replacement at Chelsea earlier this week, after the German was surprisingly fired by the club’s new owner, Todd Boehly.
Potter has established himself as one of the country’s top coaches, attracting interest from the country’s top clubs. In fact, United were encouraged to pursue him as a manager twice as a result of his efforts on the south coast, once after the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and again last season when they were looking for a permanent successor to interim coach Ralf Rangnick.
However, United turned down the opportunity to ‘hold talks’ with the Englishman on both occasions. The reason stated as reported by The Athletic is that Potter lacked the Champions League experience. An odd reason considering they didn’t qualify for the Champions League last season.
Chelsea have clearly not been put off by his lack of experience in Europe’s top flight, handing him a five-year deal to shape the west London club’s long-term future.
According to reports, the goal for this season is finishing top 4 but even if Potter does not manage to achieve that, his ‘job will not be in danger‘ as long as things look positive on and off the pitch.