Graham Potter reveals the two players he wishes Chelsea had spent £300 million on rather than the ones Todd Boehly bought for him

Graham Potter has spoken for the first time since his Chelsea sacking and revealed the two players he wished the Stamford Bridge club had signed amid a £300m spending spree from owner Todd Boehly.

Potter became Chelsea boss in September of 2022 after joining from Brighton & Hove Albion and replaced Thomas Tuchel in the Stamford Bridge dugout.

But it would prove to be a short time in charge at Chelsea as Potter was dismissed from his position at the beginning of April 2023, after losing 11 of his 31 games he managed at the club and leaving them when they sat 11th in the Premier League table.

Potter's arrival coincided with an extraordinary spending spree which exceeded £300 million in the January 2023 transfer window under Boehly's ownership.

Among these signings included the £106 million acquisition of Enzo Fernandez from Benfica, which remains a record British transfer fee.

Mykhailo Mudryk was bought from Shakhtar Donetsk for £62 million, with Benoit Badiashile joining for £35 million from Monaco and Noni Madueke, Malo Gusto and Andrey Santos also arrived during a busy first window under the new owner.

Joao Felix also joined on loan for the rest of the season from Atletico Madrid as a vast number of players arrived at Stamford Bridge in the space of a month.

Potter has now conducted his first major interview since his departure from Chelsea and spok about the January 2023 transfer activity.

And he believes Chelsea would have been better off spending the money on signing the likes of Harry Kane and Declan Rice, rather than the players they did end up bringing in.

England internationals Kane and Rice both made moves last summer, with Kane moving to Bayern Munich from Tottenham for €100 million plus a further €10 million in add-ons as he became the Bundesliga's record signing.

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Rice meanwhile moved across London from West Ham United to Arsenal for an initial £100 million.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Potter said: "It was almost like the perfect storm. It was 14 matches in six weeks prior to the World Cup. It was like you were in the washing machine, that’s what we said within the staff because the games kept coming and we had no preparation time or anything.

“We lost Reece [James] and Wesley [Fofana] to injury. I think we had the most players at the World Cup and pretty quickly afterwards we lost Raheem [Sterling] and Christian Pulisic.

"Then the ownership decided to invest a lot of money in the squad, £300 million in the January transfer window. Now, if you are spending £300 million on players that are coming from outside the Premier League, from countries that are having a mid-season break, then the reality is you can’t just imagine they are going to hit the ground running and everything’s going to be fine.

"But, obviously, if you spend £300 million, the pressure on the team goes up and the pressure on the coach goes up.

"And people go: ‘Come on then, you’ve spent all this money.’ I think if I’d have spent it on Harry Kane and Declan Rice, then fair enough, but at the time that was the decision. We tried to support it as best we could, but it left us with a challenge of a lot of players after January and then they can’t go anywhere."