Graham Potter: The Truth About My Chelsea Story & What's Next (E308)
The High Performance Podcast
High Performance
4.8 • 4.7K Ratings
🗓️ 25 November 2024
⏱️ 91 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Graham Potter is a widely respected football coach, known for his thoughtful approach and his ability to guide teams through challenging circumstances. From his early career in Sweden to his tenure in the Premier League, Potter’s journey has been marked by resilience, adaptability, and a strong commitment to his principles.
In this episode, Jake and Damian dive into Graham's story, uncovering the life lessons and hard-earned insights that make him a unique figure in football. Graham speaks openly about his turbulent time at Chelsea, describing the intense expectations he faced and how things ultimately didn’t go as planned. He reflects on his release by Todd Boehly and the mental resilience it took to come to terms with that setback, sharing how he protected his mental health in the face of intense pressure.
Graham also shares his perspective on leadership in football and the critical support that head coaches need. He offers advice for other coaches on aligning their values with club leadership, emphasising how essential this is for success. Graham also reflects on the often harsh media narrative surrounding football and the real human costs it brings for players, coaches, and their families.
This episode provides an honest glimpse into the highs and lows of top-level management, the value of staying grounded, and the importance of supporting others through challenging times.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just a really quick reminder, if you love high performance, you can get next week's episodes before |
| 0:04.0 | anyone else on the high performance app. Right now, Team GB cycling legend, Bradley Wiggins |
| 0:10.8 | opens up like never before. It's easy in your brain to go, going pot, flip her neck, |
| 0:17.2 | Brighton coach. And that's what it was. High-performing people are still imperfect. |
| 0:25.3 | I said at the time, I think Chelsea was the hardest job in football. It's not that I couldn't do it. |
| 0:30.6 | If you go in and you take a sledgehammer to a place and change it that quickly, sometimes it'll be collateral damage. |
| 0:38.9 | Be kind to yourself, accept that you're not going to be perfect, and try to find something that is meaningful, that is worth a sacrifice, and then just try your best. |
| 0:41.8 | You just heard the voice of former Chelsea, Brighton and Swansea manager, Graham Potter, |
| 0:46.5 | who joins us today on High Performance. |
| 0:48.9 | I'm Jay Comfrey and this show is created because I'm fascinated by how people find their |
| 0:53.9 | own version of high performance. |
| 0:55.0 | And I'm Damien Hughes, an expert in the world of creating high performance cultures. |
| 1:00.0 | I'm looking enough to work with people to help them understand how to create environments to get the best out of themselves and others. |
| 1:07.0 | So, today's guest, Graham Potter, well, he's got the most remarkable footballing |
| 1:12.0 | story and we should celebrate his incredible management career because it is unique. He took Swedish |
| 1:17.2 | club Osterund through three promotions before being recruited to the Premier League where he managed |
| 1:22.5 | Swansea City and Brighton. He took them from having narrowly avoided relegation to ninth place in just three seasons. |
| 1:29.4 | He left Brighton when they were in the Champions League places in the Premier League. |
| 1:34.3 | He got picked for one of the biggest jobs in football at that point, the manager of Chelsea. |
| 1:38.7 | But he lasted just seven months in charge before being dismissed in April 2023. |
| 1:43.7 | Since then, he's been on a long career break to reflect, recover, and today he breaks his silence. |
| 1:51.1 | And in his very first podcast appearance since leaving Chelsea, you're going to hear someone |
... |
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