Roberto De Zerbi gives his views on Graham Potter's Chelsea sacking

Former Brighton & Hove Albion manager Potter left the Amex Stadium to replace Thomas Tuchel at Stamford Bridge seven months ago, but was fired on Sunday after just 31 games in charge of the Blues.

On the same day, Brendan Rodgers’ contract was also terminated at relegation-threatened Leicester City, after four years in charge of the club. The two dismissals now mean there have been 13 managerial exits this season – a new Premier League record.

De Zerbi said this was “bad news for coaches” and claimed that too much importance was placed on managers in England’s top flight.

The Italian explained: “I am sorry and its bad news for the coaches. You give too much importance of the coaches, because the players are always the most important and I don’t like when the coaches are sacked because the responsibility is not only theirs – it’s the players, the club, it’s not very good news.

"In Italy we are used to changing coaches every season. The Premier League is different, but I think it’s changing.”

Having lead Brighton to their highest-ever top flight finish in the 2021-22 season, Potter signed a five-year-deal worth £60m to become the new Chelsea head coach in September, as owner Todd Boehly splashed out £21.5m to buy out his Brighton contract and bring him to the capital.

Despite being acquitted with eight new signings in January, including Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez and Ukraine forward Mykhailo Mudryk, Potter failed to pick up results.

Chelsea are currently 11th in the Premier League table, 12 points outside of the top four, and out of both domestic cups, having spent more then £500m on players this season.

Since De Zerbi has taken over from Potter at Brighton, the Seagulls have had more Premier League points (30) than the Blues (28), sitting sixth in the table and attempting to qualify for the Champions League next season.

De Zerbi has praised Potter in the past for leaving him with such a strong Albion squad and said it was the players that ultimately decided whether a coach is successful or not.

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The Brighton boss said: It’s difficult when you don’t know the situation in another dressing room, I don’t like speaking about the other teams and coaches. I can speak only of my team because I know the situation in the dressing room, on the pitch and inside the club. I am sorry because when there are these situations, they’re sad.

"The coaches are not so important like the people think. The coaches can give the players mentality, ideas, style of play. But if you speak about the result, you cannot speak about this without the players and their quality. Not only the quality of the coaches.”

De Zerbi did however claim that there was more pressure for coaches working in his home country, saying: "In Italy there is more pressure. In Italy there are 60 million people and there are 60 million coaches.

"It is very difficult to work in Italy, but the pressure is nice, it depends how you can handle it."