Former England striker Alan Shearer told Match of the Day 2 that the demand for success at Premier League clubs has led to a “crazy” football environment, where clubs “press the panic button” if they are not achieving short-term success.

“You know the rules when you go into a job these days,” said Shearer when alluding to Graham Potter losing his job at Chelsea.

“But who on earth pays £20m for their services - Potter and his staff- puts them a on a five- to six-year contract, pays them £10m a year, gives them a ridiculous amount of players for a stupid amount of money and then seven months later sacks him?

“It can only happen in football. Anyone with a football brain will tell you signing that amount of players is not going to work.”

Saltor on facing Liverpool: “We have to see it as an opportunity for the players.

“We’re representing Chelsea, a club with amazing history, who are about winning, about dominating. We need to prepare for the game, preparation helps a lot with performance. That’s what players need to focus on.

“Obviously I have pure admiration towards Jurgen. I can’t say anything other than what everyone knows. They’re going through a tough season as well, but have top players.

“We’re expecting a tough game, that’s aggressive because they have high intensity players.”

Saltor was also asked about how the players reacted to Potter’s sacking saying: “I couldn’t see the players yet. We’ve got an afternoon session planned, so I’ll see them now.

“The responsibility is all of ours but we’ve got to keep positive and focus on tomorrow’s game. That’s the energy we’re working with.

“They will be sad as well because they know the level of human being Graham is. I will take responsibility as I have done since day one and then expect them to be next to us and supportive.

“It’s a sad day for the staff because Graham and Billy [Reid] are two top coaches, top people, two human beings. How I see it, is be the most professional I can, try to help guide the players and to prepare for the game the best we can.”

There was of course one predictable line that summed up one of the main problems for Graham Potter, amid a story that a number of football figures considered inevitable. Many of the players of course had names for the manager based on his wizard namesake, and there were repeated references to Quidditch. If that would indeed be predictable even if things were going well, the issue was that they were said with a bit of bite when things were going badly - which was often.

It reflects how a core of this expanded squad just never took Potter as seriously as they should a Chelsea manager. Some had to look up his career, and certain transfer targets didn’t know that much about him. That perhaps isn’t such a surprise in a young dressing room as international as this. It did play its part in ensuring Potter was fighting a losing battle from the very start, which meant the 47-year-old didn’t win enough games to justify staying in the job.

All of the appeals to emotional intelligence and what was genuinely good technical coaching that players enjoyed couldn’t overcome key realities of football. That is a manager has to have command over a squad, even one as bloated as this.

Bruno Saltor spoke about his former boss, Graham Potter, at the start of this press conference and said: “Obviously it’s been a difficult 24 hours for all of us, for the staff, for the families and now we have to live with the situation.

“If I’m here right now it’s because Graham and the club thought it was the right step. I’m just here to help the club in the best way I can.

“I’m here right now, trying to keep the process going. We try to go along with it the best we can. I think Graham did an amazing job. Football is a really complex business and we have to keep going.

“I couldn’t see the players yet. We have an afternoon session planned. At the end of the day all of us are responsible, we have to focus on tomorrow’s game and that’s the energy we’re working on.”

“I spoke to the owners and they’ve been supportive. What I’m focused on is tomorrow’s game. Train today, train tomorrow and focus step by step.”

Bruno was asked whether he plans to make any wholesale changes to the Chelsea team that lost to Aston Villa and he replied:

“It’s a massive challenge to take on this role. I’ve got a lot of experience in changing rooms and I’ll try to help and guide players.

“We dominated the game [against Aston Villa] but there were a few mistakes. It was a good performance and we created a lot of chances so we’ll keep it as similar as we can.”

Chelsea’ s interim boss, Bruno Saltor, says it’s been a really difficult 24 hours since Graham Potter was sacked but the focus is on the next game and winning matches for Chelsea.

The Stamford Bridge dugout will have its third incumbent this season in Bruno Saltor starting Tuesday, when Chelsea host Liverpool. Saltor, who was an assistant coach under the recently departed Graham Potter, has been appointed as interim manager until the end of the season.

Bruno, as he’s commonly known, was the senior development coach in Potter’s backroom staff at Brighton & Hove Albion for three years and made the move to West London with him last September.

Bruno made 235 appearances for Brighton as a right-back, after joining them from Valencia in 2012, and captained the side to Premier League promotion in 2017. He went on to make 39 top flight appearances before retiring at the end of the 2018/19 season.

The status and regard in which he’s held by the fanbase is best reflected by the mural that went up in his honour in the city centre in November 2019.

With Chelsea now on the market for a new head coach following the sacking of Graham Potter, here’s a look at the contenders to take over at Stamford Bridge:

Jose Mourinho

Is it really so unthinkable?

With such a huge turnover of senior personnel and a sense of self that has grown disparate, there might be some logic to bringing back the man who has managed Chelsea in more games than any other this century.

Notwithstanding his record of three Premier League titles and obvious affection for the club and its fans, ‘new Chelsea’ are in desperate need of a personality who knows exactly what the old one was all about.

He recently tasted European success after guiding Roma to Conference League glory last June, and with Roman Abramovich – who sacked Mourinho not once but twice – gone, there would be a clean slate of sorts from which to work. Stranger things have happened.