Chelsea boss Graham Potter has admitted he would have remained at Brighton and rejected the Chelsea job if he wanted the easy life.

Potter said: “If I wanted a nice, easy life, I could have quite easily stayed at Brighton in the Premier League, signed a new contract and been absolutely okay.

“And I wouldn’t have had too many questions about myself, pressure, sackings or anything like that.”

Potter continues: “Football is emotion. It’s about the results and so, therefore, that overrides everything but the coaching process is something that gets better with time because you go through the ups and downs and then you understand more about this person, who can come with us, who maybe we’re not on the right path together [with] how you can help them, how they can help you.”

Potter went on to explain: “The starting point at Brighton was we were a bottom three team in the Premier League and we’re trying to change the playing style.

“You can imagine you get all the narratives that say ‘you can’t do that, you need to fight and need to do this’ so you have to try and convince and you go through a process of convincing the players, working and developing the players, changing the players and over time, the team progresses, and then the team functions and everything is ok.

“You have to go through it. There is discomfort and pain along the way. If you want to do something new, in my mind, you have to fail. It’d be wrong of me to say anything else. There’s no shortcut to it in my experience.

“One of the reasons to come [to Chelsea] – there were many – is it’s a fantastic football club, potentially one of the best in the world that can compete for any major trophy.

“I think we all know we’re not at that point now and we haven’t been for two, three or four years is the reality if you look at the league table, the points difference between the top two. So, how do you get there? That’s hard work and that’s pain and that’s suffering and that is moving forward, learning, developing and just driving it forward and that’s why we’re here.”

Chelsea play Manchester City on Wednesday in the Carabao Cup before a Premier League game against Newcastle United this weekend.

Potter said: “We can improve a lot. That’s the challenge and what we’re looking to do.

“It’s why we’re looking forward to the game [against City] and against Newcastle because that’s where you learn a lot about each other.”