Graham Potter admits he feels “very Swedish” thanks to his own World Cup adventure. Potter enjoyed one of the most memorable nights of his life after guiding the nation to qualification this summer.
That was another instalment in his special love affair with the country which has also reinvigorated him as a manager after difficult spells with Chelsea and West Ham.
This is a manager with a smile back on his face – especially when he talks about Sweden’s play-off win over back in March to reach the World Cup – as he is a national hero who even received a message of congratulations from Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
“He sent me a really nice message. It was nice,” smiled Potter. “I spoke to him before as well. Now we’re talking kings in Sweden and he was unbelievable with me, fantastic.
“When you take the job and from November you go: ‘OK, you’ve got in your head that it’s going to come down to two games in March, a play-off, to go to the World Cup.’
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“And then even then I didn’t realise how many times you get a chance to play a play-off game in front of your own people to go to the World Cup. The country stops, everyone is watching the game, as you can imagine. Imagine if that happened in any country.
“If you go onto YouTube and go into the Swedish commentary of the game, I didn’t see that at the time. But then I looked at it a couple of months afterwards and … just the emotion in the voice when Viktor Gyokeres scores and it’s like an out of body experience, I can only describe it as that.
“Well, I feel very Swedish when I’m working, very Swedish. I look a bit Swedish! Yeah, because my kids were born in Sweden, two of them were. I had seven unbelievable years there, memories that’ll just stay with me for life.
“I’ve got an incredible amount to be grateful to the country for, the opportunity I had there. It was my home, for seven years it was my home. And now I’m working for the Swedish FA, and I’m the head coach of the national team, so I feel very Swedish.”
View 5 ImagesPotter now has a smile on his face again with Sweden(Image: Getty Images)
Does he sing the national anthem? “I’m not going to sing it now!” He laughs. “You go on to YouTube and you’ll see me singing it.
“Everybody has to make a choice, like I said, and for me, in that moment when I’m in Sweden and I’m representing the Swedish national team, then of course I feel part of the team, I feel part of the country, and it’s nice for me to do that.”
Potter is the manager who really came to our wider consciousness when he was in charge of Swedish club Ostersunds and he was cast as the forward thinking, intelligent manager who did a Masters degree in leadership
Potter did well at Swansea, excelled at Brighton but then had a difficult year at Chelsea before his career really took a downturn after a miserable spell at West Ham which ended with the sack in September.
View 5 ImagesPotter was sacked by West Ham earlier this season(Image: Getty Images)
From there, the old Potter had gone. He is such a likeable, impressive person who was so clearly bruised by the experience. Even now, Potter refers to “you know the headlines being written” as judgement on if it goes wrong.
But the Sweden experience has really brought back his enthusiasm, love for the game and that desire has seen his impressive upward turn. He has fought and deserved it.
“I’ve lived failure, studied failure. I’ve had quite a bit of success as well, you know, so it’s been quite nice. That’s what a life is, you know,” said Potter.
“In the end you have to find some way of being grateful for it but, when you’re going through it, it isn’t easy. You have to deal with the failure. But you become a better person for it, that’s for sure.
View 5 ImagesPotter has managed to lead Sweden to the World Cup(Image: Getty Images)
“Of course you have to reflect on all these things that happen and try to put everything in perspective. And then, and then sometimes in football you just can’t rationalise it, you just go, ‘OK well it maybe it wasn’t meant to be.’
“I won’t share my learnings with you because it’s f****** hurt me to get them — you know what I mean? It does. And I think it should because that’s how you improve. That’s how you get better.”
Potter says his first memories of a World Cup were from 1986 but he is all too aware of the pressure on Sweden at any tournament – especially in America.
Back in 1994, Sweden finished third and the country has enjoyed World Cup fever ever since. But actually, Potter is just hoping for more memorable nights and big celebrations.
View 5 ImagesSweden are set to begin their World Cup campaign against Tunisia(Image: Getty Images)
Potter said: “I mean, my first memory – we know how times have changed, but my first football memories are ‘86, 11 years old, watching Diego Maradona rip football up. That’s when I started to go, wow, this is amazing.
“Obviously, we can see so much football on TV now, but I think back in those days, the World Cup was the only time you could see football on the telly, unless maybe the FA Cup.
“So, as a kid, that’s where I started, so to get the chance to experience that and to work in that environment, it’s just, yeah, it’s a dream.
“They came third in 1994. There was a lot of sunburnt Swedes. Massive. Everybody remembers that summer. The World Cup song that year is brilliant and massive.
“You just go back to that word, to be grateful for everything that’s happened to me, to accept all the things that happened, take it positively and hopefully enjoy every minute going to the World Cup. That’s all I’m focused on.”
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