[Albion] Graham Potter joins on four-year deal

dwayne said:

What this guy probably hasn't been tested with yet in his career is a big runs of losses. Thats when it will be interesting to see if he can hack the pressure and keep to his philosophy like Hughton did.

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TWOCHOICEStom said:

One season in the Championship finishing tenth and getting Östersund into Allsvenskan really aren't credentials to make me believe this will go well.

I'm excited, but this is a massive roll of the dice. Massive massive gamble on an unproven manager.

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Swansman said:

Hi, first of all I've come to say hi please dont steal him.

Second, I'm here to deliver Graham Potter porn. NSFW below.

Some Swedish article about Potter's leadership

"If I should mentioned me as a leader it is my math teacher from when I grew up outside of Birmingham. Mr Shaw. He was the difference between a good and a bad teacher. You focused on the lessons. This despite it being about algebra. You understand? Algebra! He really had an ability to lead, make us engaged, and develop both in math and as humans. We still have contact and I learned a lot from his ways".

"Everyone of my friends took the usual path through college and university into the corporate world. I guess I would have followed that if it wasnt for football. I was pretty good in school."

"Honestly, I dont think there is a lot of difference between leading a company and leading a football team, not from the leadership perspective. The contect is difference but the principles the same. A lot of groups, in society or in football teams, are talented and should be better than they are. But there is something in the organisation that makes them perform worse. Bad environment? Group dynamics? The leaders?"

[Östersund had just played 3-3- in a friendly versus Lokomotiv Moskva] "Vi did a lot of good things. Unfortunately we let in a few goals that looked a bit easy. But that happens. To develop the players in my team, or the colleagues in a company, you have to develop them psychologically. This is important in H&M or Swedbank or as a player in LÖstersund or Barcelona".

"To me its just that, developing the players both in football and as humans, that is the goal of my leadership. I focused everything on football, but one day - when I was 24 - I realised I could just barely read the easiest of tabloids. It was like my brain didnt develop when I just played football. I decided I needed to train my brain as well."

"We all do it, we pick up things here and there and try to become who we are. I went different coaching educations in England, they were uninspiring. I probably wasnt ready. The first leadership job I had was as head of development of the football at University of Hull and it didnt feel good. I wasnt comfortable. I'm not the type of person who feels natural speaking in front of people".

"In my style of leadership, one of the parts is to create an environment where people are challenged. This requires that you realise that people are different. Its important to be respectful, we are talking about people with their own careers and wills. If you show respect for these differences, you create a safe working environment".

"We make mistakes all the time. A football game is 90 minutes filled with mistakes. Then its important not too critisise as it creates fear. It is unfortunately pretty common in sports, and probably in other organisations as well. I dont want to point at a player and say "we lost because of your marking", because mistakes will happen again and again and again. Instead we need to use mistakes to improve to get better. I want people to grow, to feel that they are a part of what we're doing. Instead of critisising, I want to show what we can learn."

"You have to get a feel of the person you are dealing with. I think I am pretty honest when I give feedback. If I explain why I give the feedback - in order to help the player and help the club - there is usually no problems. I dont think anyone ever has gotten mad at me. Fundamentally it is because I set up a framework and explain why I say the things I say. That framework is important - anyone who wants to evolve needs to get feedback".

"It always sound easy when 'experts' on TV says what should have been done. But it is different when you are dealing with people.HOW you communicate your message, the words you use, is something where a lot of leaders fail".

"Its easy to say that you should learn from mistakes - the thing I tell others. But I know myself it is hard to accept your mistakes. We humans want to be good, succesfull, feel useful. And thats why as a leader you must be able to say "sorry lads, I made a mistake."

"If you want an environment where people feel confidence and safety then the leader must be the first one to admit to mistakes. I dont have all the answers. I need to be able to admitting that. I make plenty of mistakes every day. When it comes to leadership, you first need to understand yourself: "Why do I react the way I do? What are my weaknesses?" If you dont understand yourself, you are just roleplaying a leader."

"We've gotten new players that havent understood anything. 'What? We are doing theatre?'. Not everyone is excited. But they understand when I explain it: its a fascinating process and we all grow from it. We become more brave, I'm sure of it, from my experiences. Dancing was the funniest. The singing was the worst. "Jämtlandssången", in Swedish, in front of 1500 people. I was very uncomfortable. I practised with a nice little piano comp, and when it was time there was a whole band there. But I did it. Trust me, you feel like a rock star..."

And from the side text:

Career plans: "I have none. My plans follow the team. I dont make personal five- or ten year plans."

Swedish and British leadership: "Swedes are bit more reserved, usually. A bit more afraid of conflicts. But I like how calm most Swedish leaders are."

Swedish language: "I understand it pretty well. But Im not good at speaking it. My son, who speaks perfect Swedish, laughs at me all the time."

Travels: "Nowadays mainly to warm places that suits the kids."

Music: "Im pretty nostalgic. Currently its most Cranberries because it reminds me of when I was a young man, young and promising..."

***

Potter on his background and philosophy
After a year in Southampton, where no one had seen him play when they bought him, he moved down a level to West Bromwich in the second division. "I had a coach saying: "I cant make you better, but I can make you fitter. So we ran. 'If you run more than the other team you will win!'", he says, grinning.

"Another coach, Terry - bless him - used to say that if the opponents got a goal kick it was good, because then it was 70 meters away from our own goal. For a second I thought: Wait, that is not the answer. It triggers the mind. When we conceded goals from a corner, the coach was often speaking with the guy who lost his marking. That was all of the analysis. In my mind I thought: yeah, but we had to defend against 16 or 17 corners? Thats the problem right? You play against teams that control the ball a lot. They attack you. You start thinking."

Eventually the contract with York ended. Potter hears nothing from the club. Instead he reads on the teleprompter (or whatever the word is) that he is a out of a job, the same day he is marrying his wife.

Next destination is Boston United, a club that because of unpaid salaries tries to compensate their players with giving the players frozen turkey for Christmas. He gets to know Graeme Jones, but loses the motivation to keep playing. After a short session in Macclesfield, he quits, only 31 years old.

"I went through the coaching education but it was very traditional. It was not moving, just uncomfortable. To be a coach and stand in front of people and speak didnt feel natural. I could not go into professional football again with my toolset."

"There was a lot of ex players who didnt care, they thought they were born coaches and didnt have to learn anything about it. Maybe I didnt realise it then, but the most thing is to be able to sort and categorize ideas and put them together, structure things and people to make them better. My experience from playing and coaching wasn't that. It was just "things". Nothing. A place with "things" and people wanting a badge. No teaching, no learning."

"I realised I didnt have a damn clue about anything. I was just shit. I still realise that sometimes. But then, if I had become a coach I would have failed. I had no abilities and no ideas how to structure things. I had the education, but I learned nothing."

On his days off, Potter used to go to Swansea to watch Jones & Martinez training sessions. "They were killing League One with their ball possession. It was the first time anyone played like that in England, at least on a lower level. It became the identity of Swansea. There was a big reluctance against it within the club as well, but I saw how they were working towards something."

"You try to steal some stuff. I was looking for something as well. I had nothing. I had a bit of own thoughts but I needed a period of experimenting. I tried different systems and methods, and now when I think back that time was very important. I had a platform that showed me the things I needed to know and handle. Ideas of how I wanted to work started to grow."

"But it wasnt easy. There is this attitude in England, a culture that says: "the ball goes forward". We dont realise it before someone says: 'I saw something else'. It is a bit difficult, you need to think a bit different, you need to train a bit different, but it is possible, I knew because I saw it happening in Swansea."

Soon a vision of play got into his mind but when Potter moves to Leeds after 2,5 year in Hull he still thinks something is missing in his toolbox. "When I was playing there was no culture of learning. There was a culture of blaming, filled with mistakes and fear. As a coach you need to challenge it. But how do you do it differently?"

He starts a master education in emotional intelligence. It is provided by a psychiatrist who had earlier worked with special forces of the British army, among other places in Afghanistan where soldiers were to go into caves and tunnels and where a lot is about handling pressure in life-and-death situations.

Apart from the man wanting to become a football coach, he shares bench rows with a lot of surgeons. "How do you coop with failure and mistakes? That started to create a more theoretical understand of leadership in me. How am I going to use this knowledge in football? Mistakes happen. How do you react? How do we develop responsibility, self-conciousness and empathy? It is the most important thing in a football team. I knew it, but now I had the tools to develop it. Anyone can see a training session or practice on Youtube, but if it is delivered in a bad environment, its not going to work."

When he was done in Leeds, he was of interest to no one. "I was a university coach. No one was interested in me. They want to know: where are you signing players, what experience do you have of League Two, how are we getting out of this division? That sort of things. They dont wanna hear about a method, or how you work. Football is like that generally. When you start talking too much theory and tactics, people are going to see you as this high-brow *******. It doesnt help you being intellectually developed. You prefer someone who makes funny jokes."

"I knew I had to take another path. I wasnt exactly sure I had to go abroad. Very early, I got an offer from Swanseas youth academy, but it wasnt good enough."

In Östersund, he could in a safe environment use the methods he had been taught. He and Graeme Jones learned about "holistic" training principles on trips to Spain, and he learned about the physical periodization strategy of Raymond Verheijen. "In football, result is everything. It is too much. There is a lot of great work being done but since the team doesnt win its not interesting. Football is often simplified. The discussion seldom goes any deep, it stays short term and its danger, because we get into this conservative bubble. Then its easier to buy experience and refer backwards. That is why 95 percent of the leagues are determined by economical muscle. The big challenge of football is to leave the bubble."

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Gwylan said:

Sounds like the Stephens haters aren't going to like this guy

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*Gullsworth* said:

It feels we are going from steady as she goes stewardship to bollocks let's give it a go, scary.

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dwayne said:

He definitely talks the talk. A lot of his management speak sounds like one of the text books he studied in uni. That's the problem with football managers; most are so thick in this country; when you find one that has a Mickey mouse degree they seem amazing and refreshing.

What this guy probably hasn't been tested with yet in his career is a big runs of losses. Thats when it will be interesting to see if he can hack the pressure and keep to his philosophy like Hughton did.

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AmexRuislip said:

Only caught the back end of this, so please correct if I'm wrong.
Talks!te just said Potter going to be interviewed.

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TWOCHOICEStom said:

But... a bit... exciting?

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Bold Seagull said:

I apologise to the poster that pointed this out to me, but 10 years ago only 3 Premier League matches out of 760 had a team having 70% possession of the ball. This season, and last I believe, it's been well over 60 games. What prepares a manager for a 3rd or more of your games you are likely to have 30% or less of the ball. What prepares you for that, then the following week at home you're expected to have 60%, 20 shots and a couple of goals against at least 10 or so other sides in the division. That is the expectation. Potter won't have faced that in Sweden or in the Championship.

Hughton has torn up the Championship every time he has managed in it. Simply doesn't have the demands of the Premier League, there is barely a league that does by comparison. Spain has a top 2, sometimes a 3, Bundesliga it really is a top team and everyone else trying to bring them down, Italy has what, an 8 consecutive title winning side. No other league has a top 6 that dominate like we have in England and it seems to be more and more cemented in place with each passing season. Even a dire Man Utd still finish 6th, 9 points above 7th.

Fulham came up having spent over £100m, tried to carry on playing the expansive attacking football they bought up from the Championship, and they're straight back down. Jokanović went from progressive exciting manager to clueless in the space of 3 painful Premier League months – the league is that brutal.

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clapham_gull said:

Being interviewed today after Swansea gave permission for approach.

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dwayne said:

On the flip side it could be argued that apart from the top 6 there is a lot of mediocrity. No reason why we can't compete with Bmuff, Burnley, Saints , West Ham, palace, Watford etc etc

We just didn't compete with the club's around us this season and that was a massive disappointment.

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bashlsdir said:

Might be the next Klopp, who knows.

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BensGrandad said:

Must say not overjoyed about this but it is not my money at stake I am just a fan.

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Johnny RoastBeef said:

Thanks, very informative.

For those who can't be bothered, this one sentence shows the difference between his philosophy and what has gone before.

When we conceded goals from a corner, the coach was often speaking with the guy who lost his marking. That was all of the analysis. In my mind I thought: yeah, but we had to defend against 16 or 17 corners? Thats the problem right?'

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