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Every seven days Graham Potter laces up his trainers and goes for a jog down the Brighton seafront. It is, by some margin, the worst half hour of his week.
‘I absolutely hate running,’ the Brighton manager tells Sportsmail.
‘But I try to do it once a week just for my brain, just to deliberately do something I don’t like. It’s kind of a torture but I have to be prepared to deal with the pain.
‘I just think, “I hate this, I hate this. Why am I doing this?” I don’t find a zone or a mental high. No. I Just find real satisfaction when I have done it. That’s all it’s for. To show that I can.’
Graham Potter reflects on Premier League management as he begins a fourth year at Brighton
Football management is a stressful business. It could be argued there is enough pain and anguish at work without adding more on top in your spare time.
But Potter’s outlook on life has always been about asking himself just one more question, taking just one more step. Three years into his time at Brighton that philosophy remains.
‘In football the best way to convince people you are on the right path is to win,’ says Potter. ‘And when you are at Brighton or a lot of clubs in the Premier League, you don’t win that often. International breaks come, you get draws, you get a defeat, the fixture schedule throws big clubs at you.
'Psychologically that can be a big challenge so I try to see it as something I am fortunate to experience. I try to think, “I am getting this challenge that allows me to try to grow as much as possible”.
The 47-year-old led the Seagulls to their highest ever Premier League finish of ninth last season
‘It is brutal at times. But you have to see it as a way of making you better as a person. Because what is the alternative?
‘Work is sometimes needed to find perspective, to zoom out of the emotional rollercoaster of the Premier League.
‘Because if you can’t do that it can drive you insane and change you for the worse. I’d never want that.’
Three months ago almost to the day, Potter watched his Brighton team demolish Manchester United 4-0 at the Amex Stadium. Brighton were to finish ninth in the Premier League, a record for the club.
‘It was one of those days you have to appreciate,’ he recalls.
‘The sun was shining, the team was playing well, we scored, caught the opposition at a good time and that was everything we needed. It was a good game and a good day. But it’s gone.’
On Sunday, Brighton begin their season at Old Trafford. United have a new coach and new players. Brighton will be without Yves Bissouma and Marc Cucurella, sold to Tottenham and Chelsea for a combined total of £90m. Potter, as always, is optimistic.
He says: ‘Sometimes you find yourself standing on the side of these pitches thinking, “Wow, this is amazing”. There is nothing wrong with that. It would be a shame if I ever thought differently.
Potter admitted his three years at Brighton had been 'challenging' amid grief and Covid
‘My mum and dad aren’t with us any more, bless them. But they were working people and would have loved to have watched these games.
‘Think of all the people in the world who would swap places with me. It’s incredible.
‘So you owe it to the game and everyone who has supported you to at least try to enjoy the opportunity to succeed or fail. It’s not always so simple. It’s tough but you really do have to try.’
Potter lost both his parents during his first season at Brighton. Soon after that, Covid struck. At the end of it, he kept Brighton in the Premier League by seven points but at times it felt a little more twitchy than that.
‘The three years here have been incredibly challenging,’ he nods.
‘It’s been really tough but brilliant as well. The older I get the more I realise life is like that. There is loads of good stuff but loads of bad stuff as well. Nobody escapes it. We are all the same.
‘The first year was probably the toughest of my life. Losing two parents so quickly and dealing with the emotion of the Premier League.
Potter lost both his parents in his first season before football was shutdown due to the virus
‘I was asking myself if I was feeling angry or upset because of the football or because of the stuff I was going through as a human being. You have to try and work that out. Maybe I still don’t know.
‘Then the pandemic hit and with all this in the background I was trying to convince everybody we were on the right path here and the truth is there isn’t a massive amount of patience in the modern world.
‘Ultimately people want to win and when you are getting 41 points — as we did — then it’s clear you are not winning that much.
‘So it’s tough to keep going forward and that’s where I am fortunate to have a good club here with good people to give me the stability to be able to be a coach. None of us are perfect. We all need that support and I am at a place where I get that. I am grateful.’ Brighton’s patience has been repaid. The team’s football is clever and progressive and has steadily improved under their 47-year-old coach along with their league position. Potter has also ignored at least one — possibly two — overtures from Tottenham in the last year or so.
