Who is Chelsea's new Interim Manager: Bruno Saltor.

Since Chelsea parted ways with Graham Potter on April 2nd, Chelsea have announced that the Interim manager will be Bruno Saltor. But who is Bruno Saltor and what can we expect?

Bruno Saltor joined Chelsea with Graham Potter on September 8th in 2022, and has now been given the role of interim manager after Potter was relieved of his duties. Saltor enjoyed a long career starting in Spain for Espanyol B in 1999 and ending with a 7 year stint at Brighton from 2012-2019. Saltor played 585 games over his 20 year playing career, and has gained valuable experience during this time.

Matt Law of the Daily Telegraph has said "Bruno's thinking of Football is heavily influenced by Pep Guardiola, he often took training sessions at Brighton". This could be very telling from watching Brighton last season and their brand of football. Similar to Michael Beale at Rangers with Steven Gerrard, it was later revea

led how much impact Beale had at Rangers in regards to training sessions. This is similar to that of Bruno Saltor at Brighton. So could we see Saltor implement this style in his short stint at Chelsea whilst the owners look for their next move?

As referred to in his first press conference as the Chelsea interim manager, Saltor said that his experience in various dressing room's over the course of his playing career will help him in this period of time when taking charge at Chelsea for the time being. Bruno Saltor will be able to communicate and encourage the current squad using this experience as he refereed to as being " very recent in his playing career".

Bruno Saltor also said in his press conference that Chelsea will be sticking to the back 3 that they have previously been playing. Saltor stated that the dominance shown against Aston villa was the blueprint Chelsea want to play with, and he will aim to produce similar performances with different results and outcomes. One thing Saltor did not want to give away was his selections for the game against Liverpool but we can expect a similar team to what we have seen in recent weeks.

Whilst Saltor is extremely saddened by the dismissal of Graham Potter at Chelsea, and he referred to his admiration of Potter multiple times in his press conference. Saltor will still see this as an opportunity to put his name out there by steadying the ship at Chelsea and attempting to get some results whilst other managers are sought after by the Chelsea owners. Saltor stated that Potter has given him his blessing to stay in the post at Chelsea as the interim manager to make this transition a smooth one for the club.

Saltor only started his coaching journey at the end of his Brighton playing career in 2019. Saltor was appointed at Brighton as a development coach and was there until Potter bought him to Chelsea in 2022. At this early stage in Saltor's coaching career, he will definitely want to gain from this experience and put his all into the current situation however long it may be.

Could Bruno Saltor pull off another Roberto Di Matteo story? Will he galvanise this talented Chelsea group? We will see as he takes on his first game in charge against Liverpool at 8pm Uk time 04/04/23.