I was at Leeds Carnegie, the ninth tier. And I was coaching students. There would have been hundreds of managers with more experience. So I had to go to the fourth tier of Swedish football, pretty much in the Arctic circle. Graham Potter More Quotes by Graham Potter More Quotes From Graham Potter We are our own worst enemies and as a coach you can help people recognise that, raise their self-awareness and then see if they change or do anything about it. Graham Potter enemies you change people People think that coaching is about winning football matches - which, of course, it is - but throughout my career it has also been about helping people become better, more able to deal with life and be more successful in their lives, on and off the football pitch. Graham Potter winning football life people You cannot win all the time and, often, we don't win that much. You have to have something and I think if we can create an environment where people genuinely think that we are trying to help them, trying to improve them and make them better, then OK, maybe they will try a bit harder, and do a bit better for the team and the club. Graham Potter you team time people I remember doing my first coaching sessions at Macclesfield, when I was still playing, and I was just terrible. I felt really uncomfortable standing in front of people, and it felt very odd. It was not something I was naturally comfortable with at all. Graham Potter doing standing remember people I needed to learn to be a coach initially. I think if I'd gone into professional football when I stopped playing when I was 30 years old I'd have failed because I'd have made too many mistakes because I had no real idea at that time. Graham Potter mistakes think time football They're human beings before they're footballers and it's important to understand how can I help them. What do they need? How can they feel part of this? How can they feel they're improving in their career, because my job is to help them get better, play better football, earn a better contract, whatever it is. Graham Potter feel better job football All I can promise is I'll do my very best. I'll try as hard as I can. Graham Potter best try hard i-can We want our teams to be able to entertain the supporters - they're such an important part of the industry, sometimes forgotten a bit. At the Amex they'll be very important for us. So we'll try and entertain. At the same time I know we're in the results business. I'm not naive. Graham Potter know business time sometimes Sometimes there is a disconnect between footballers and supporters, because there are highly-paid people here and supporters over there, and nothing in between. Graham Potter here nothing sometimes people I'd read a classics book on the bus when I was at York. Graham Potter classics read bus book It was a huge move for me to leave Sweden, because I was really happy there. It was a club we thought we could carry on developing and try to win the league with. And my family were really settled. Graham Potter win me family happy I played football because I loved the game - but I didn't enjoy the focus on not making mistakes and the culture being essentially one of blame and a little fear. Graham Potter focus fear football culture I was used to football supporters hammering me and I thought my name was Graham Potter-Boo at one point. Graham Potter name thought me football You have to respect and understand the environment. So I don't think it's a case of taking anything from Ostersund and transferring it to somewhere else. Graham Potter understand think you respect But concepts around how a team functions, the importance of the relationship between football and the person, how you develop both, are always valid. Graham Potter you team relationship football Whenever you start a new job, it's always a bit daunting, the unknown. Graham Potter new job start you Players are fundamentally the same - regardless of what they earn. They want to improve and want to be part of something. Graham Potter earn players something want At Ostersunds, we had half the players who were part-time and working and the other half were full-time. Graham Potter players working who half The pressure of the Premier League is huge but so is moving your family across the world to a club where they had sacked the manager every year for the last five. Graham Potter family pressure world moving My unglittering football career came to a halt at the age at 30, and I had to embark on a coaching career: 14 years of hard work and sacrifice, learning and mistakes. Graham Potter learning hard-work age work
