Chelsea star issues Graham Potter and Mauricio Pochettino verdict and delivers Tottenham swipe

The Blues confirmed this afternoon that the former Brighton manager would be their new head coach following the sacking of Thomas Tuchel on Wednesday morning.

In the last 24 hours, Chelsea had approached both Potter and Mauricio Pochettino about the vacant role.

Morris, who made 173 appearances for the West London side between 1996 and 2003, said he would prefer to support an English coach as Chelsea manger.

Speaking to Sky Sports News, he said: “I think Pochettino is a top coach and he has performed great at Spurs and PSG but if you are asking me as a Chelsea fan, its a bit different.

"Purely because he ain’t come from Spurs and also Graham is a English coach. I like to get behind my English coaches and I think he has done great.

“Pochettino is a legend already in the game and done a great job at Spurs, but if you are asking me as a Chelsea fan, I would say Potter.”

Potter, 47, said his goodbye’s at Brighton’s First Team Training Ground in Lancing this morning – having worked at the south coast club since June 2019.

He has signed a five-year-deal with Chelsea and will take coaches Billy Reid, Bjorn Hamberg, Ben Roberts and Bruno Saltor with him – as well as analyst Kyle Macaulay.

Morris, who was also assistant manager to Frank Lampard at Derby and Chelsea, also told Sky Sports he was impressed with Potter’s Swansea and Brighton sides when facing up against them.

Morris said: “I have to say from afar, without knowing him too well, I've always admired how his teams played.

“On a sort of budget that is not comparable to some of the top teams, he’s always done well against some of the bigger teams in the Premier League.

His style of play I admired at Swansea and I admire it even more at Brighton. You only need to look at how well they have done so far this season.

"Even just seeing him from interviews, he’s a very well accomplished man, let alone manager."

However, Morris warned sitting in the Chelsea hot seat would be a ‘different animal’ in relation to managing those two clubs.

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The ex-Chelsea man said: “It’s totally different, with all due respect to Brighton, which I think is a fantastic club and is well-run and doing great in the Premier League, if he was to be the Chelsea manager it would be a totally different animal.

“The demands from the fans and expected to win every week and challenge for trophies is totally different to being in a club where you are expected to be midtable - you can go a couple of months without winning a game and it's not that much of a problem.

"You go a couple of games without winning at Chelsea it’s totally different,

“But you have to say, if we are talking about Graham Potter being the Chelsea manager, in terms of taking a step up, what a step up it would be.”