“The challenge”- Graham Potter spills the beans on Chelsea players who failed the make the cut for Europe

Chelsea boss Graham Potter on how he is handling players not in the UCL squad

Speaking to the media ahead of the game (h/t Football.London), Chelsea boss Graham Potter on how he is handling players who are not in the Champions League squad.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Benoit Badiashile were among the notable names excluded from the squad that will fight to win the most prestigious trophy in European football this season.

Although the latter has been one of Chelsea’s best defenders since joining from AS Monaco in January, the UEFA rules restrict clubs to register only three new signings for the squad that will play the knockout stages. The Blues registered Mykhailo Mudryk, Joao Felix and Enzo Fernandez.

Here’s what Potter said when asked about how to deal with and prepare the players who are not in the Champions League squad (h/t Football.London):

“We trained today and the players not in the group had a good training session. They’ll be free tomorrow and watch the game, then we’re back on Thursday and they can train. So they don’t miss too much in terms of their own preparation. They’ll be available for Southampton and be ready. The other players still coming back from injured, Raheem [Sterling], N’Golo Kante and Christian Pulisic will be working their way back at Cobham. It’s part of the challenge we have at the moment but everybody has been absolutely fine”

Although Potter has made it sound like everything is normal, we can only hope that it is the case. For any player, it is tough to miss out on an opportunity to play in the Champions League knockout games when you are fit to do so and your teammates are playing in that.

While Badiashile is only 21 and he will have more chances to relive his dream, Aubameyang is 33 now and may not have many go’s at this.

Either way, the decision is made now and the squad needs to stick together for the coming last-16 tie against Borussia Dortmund. Let’s hope the players selected do the job and we go into the next round of the competition.

More Chelsea News:

• William Gallas chastises Chelsea star Marc Cucurella who struggled against West Ham United
• Rafael van der Vaart asks Tottenham Hotspur to sign Chelsea star Hakim Ziyech
• Legendary Chelsea defender John Terry responds savagely to the Graham Potter theory

Keeping our current form in mind, it does look tough to see Chelsea going past a rampaging Dortmund who have won every game since the resumption of their season after the World Cup. The one thing we have is the experience of winning this trophy before. That could be useful when the pressure situations are on.