[Albion] Graham Potter on the High Performance podcast

[Han Solo]

Still like the guy, but it’s hard to hear his strength is empathy, when he effectively gutted the club of its coaching team for his own personal ambitions.

The empathic decision is to tell his coaching team to stay at Brighton instead of securing the futures of their families through following him to Chelsea?

Emapathy is telling Bruno "nah, it would look bad if I took you with me. Stick around and pray that the next manager want you rather than some random Umberto Corleone as his coach"?

When Ben and Bruno go and secure the future of their families, it is likely a once in a lifetime opportunity. If you can give it to them, give it to them - that is the fair thing to do.

When Brighton lose two coaches there's a gazillion others to step in and do the job. It is a VERY small problem.

He caused Brighton a very minor issue in exchange for securing the financial future of six or seven families. Its a choice any normal human would do.

 

[El Presidente]

He’s a genuine good guy, the overreaction to him doing exactly what 99% of us would do if offered £12m a year is nuts.

 

[boik]

Well this thread expectedly turned into a circle jerk of the Potter haters.

 

[Man of Harveys]

Well this thread expectedly turned into a circle jerk of the Potter haters.

Yes. Love it. Never forgive or forget that mediocre front bottom.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

He’s a genuine good guy, the overreaction to him doing exactly what 99% of us would do if offered £12m a year is nuts.

Was it about the money for him?

 

[Han Solo]

Well this thread expectedly turned into a circle jerk of the Potter haters.

Quite a few of them aren't going to get the job done in another fashion tbf.

 

[Hiheidi]

The empathic decision is to tell his coaching team to stay at Brighton instead of securing the futures of their families through following him to Chelsea?

Emapathy is telling Bruno "nah, it would look bad if I took you with me. Stick around and pray that the next manager want you rather than some random Umberto Corleone as his coach"?

When Ben and Bruno go and secure the future of their families, it is likely a once in a lifetime opportunity. If you can give it to them, give it to them - that is the fair thing to do.

You say this, but Bruno effectively had a job for life at Brighton (where he lives / his kids go to school and play for local sport teams). The move to Chelsea - where there was no loyalty towards him - means he's been out of work for a year and a half (whilst not being on GP's megabucks). Someone posted on here recently that he's annoyed that GP hasn't taken another role, hence he's looking for other coaching opportunities.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Quite a few of them aren't going to get the job done in another fashion tbf.

The empathic decision is to tell his coaching team to stay at Brighton instead of securing the futures of their families through following him to Chelsea?

Emapathy is telling Bruno "nah, it would look bad if I took you with me. Stick around and pray that the next manager want you rather than some random Umberto Corleone as his coach"?

When Ben and Bruno go and secure the future of their families, it is likely a once in a lifetime opportunity. If you can give it to them, give it to them - that is the fair thing to do.

When Brighton lose two coaches there's a gazillion others to step in and do the job. It is a VERY small problem.

He caused Brighton a very minor issue in exchange for securing the financial future of six or seven families. Its a choice any normal human would do.

Both of these made me laugh.

 

[Hotchilidog]

He obviously does so the feeling is mutual. Any manager who walks out of a club and takes all the first team coaching staff is going to get shit on his return. If you don’t understand that football is probably not for you

One of the most satisfying results in my time following the Albion was the ABSOLUTE THRASHING he got on his return.

I bloody love a bit of football Panto, especially when we win

I have a more favourable view of Potter than most, but if you could not enjoy that SPANKING we gave Chelsea on his return then you really need to find another recreational activity, it was GLORIOUS!

 

[Simster]

He’s a genuine good guy, the overreaction to him doing exactly what 99% of us would do if offered £12m a year is nuts.

Agree. I'm actually ambivalent to him these days. Neither pro nor anti. He was merely part of the process.

The way I see it, people are unreasonably pissed off with him for a few reasons.
1) he nicked off the second our squad looked like being genuinely top 6, after our fans and board backed him through at least 2 frustrating years
2) he took our entire backroom staff with him.
3) he is middle class and dreary. Sorry, some people are genuinely affected by this.

He was a good manager for us though. It's easy to remember the frustrating 2 years (where we were better than results suggested), the calendar year with one home win, and obviously the way he left. It's less easy to remember how he picked up from the precarious situation Sir Chris had left, where we looked ripe for relegation and had no young players being given a chance. Inside 2 months we were controlling games from the back and frankly were bitterly unlucky not to be getting better results than we were.

 

[Hotchilidog]

Agree. I'm actually ambivalent to him these days. Neither pro nor anti. He was merely part of the process.

The way I see it, people are unreasonably pissed off with him for a few reasons.
1) he nicked off the second our squad looked like being genuinely top 6, after our fans and board backed him through at least 2 frustrating years
2) he took our entire backroom staff with him.
3) he is middle class and dreary. Sorry, some people are genuinely affected by this.

He was a good manager for us though. It's easy to remember the frustrating 2 years (where we were better than results suggested), the calendar year with one home win, and obviously the way he left. It's less easy to remember how he picked up from the precarious situation Sir Chris had left, where we looked ripe for relegation and had no young players being given a chance. Inside 2 months we were controlling games from the back and frankly were bitterly unlucky not to be getting better results than we were.

Completely agree with all of this points one and two stung for me...point three less as someone who is also middle class and dreary.
Ultimately though Potter's move worked out for us much more than him (cash aside). I appreciate what he did for us, he was a good manager and I am glad we gave him the time to finally get things to gel.

When I see Potter now, I see a man who set his own career back a couple of years and that's on him. I'm happy with where we are now, and maybe we wouldn't be here without him leaving.

 

[Biscuit]

He’s a genuine good guy, the overreaction to him doing exactly what 99% of us would do if offered £12m a year is nuts.

This presumes people are annoyed that he left to join a bigger club, when I think far more people are bothered by his general attitude towards Brighton and its fanbase.

Players/managers/coaches leave all the time. I've not seen an outpouring of abuse towards Ali Mac for doing exactly what 99% of us would do. I wonder why?

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Does anyone think he regrets leaving Brighton/would love to turn back the clock on that one?

 

[MikeHimself]

So the manager that jumped ship with all his crew after 6 games into a new season said
"If I wanted a nice, easy life I could have quite easily stayed working at Brighton in the Premier League and signed a new contract and been absolutely OK. And I wouldn't have had too many questions about myself or pressure or sacking or anything like that, but the reason to come here, one of the reasons to come here as there were many, it's a fantastic football club, potentially one of the best in the world that can compete for any major trophy"
That's our Albion, Potter.....

 

[chickens]

So the manager that jumped ship with all his crew after 6 games into a new season said
"If I wanted a nice, easy life I could have quite easily stayed working at Brighton in the Premier League and signed a new contract and been absolutely OK. And I wouldn't have had too many questions about myself or pressure or sacking or anything like that, but the reason to come here, one of the reasons to come here as there were many, it's a fantastic football club, potentially one of the best in the world that can compete for any major trophy"
That's our Albion, Potter.....

That for me is what makes me delighted he’s gone. He’d lost ambition at Brighton, he felt he’d overachieved and that where we were was “as good as it could get” for Brighton.

By that admission alone his time was up. I was gutted that he left when he did, but am subsequently delighted at having FH as our head coach. It’s an ill wind…

 

[Simster]

Completely agree with all of this points one and two stung for me...point three less as someone who is also middle class and dreary.
Ultimately though Potter's move worked out for us much more than him (cash aside). I appreciate what he did for us, he was a good manager and I am glad we gave him the time to finally get things to gel.

When I see Potter now, I see a man who set his own career back a couple of years and that's on him. I'm happy with where we are now, and maybe we wouldn't be here without him leaving.

When you say attitude, you mean literally two quotes

One about an easy life - not sure why people are so riled about that one really. It's hardly controversial.
The other was a history lesson. Again, this was in response to being provided after some booing from a part of a fanbase that has never seen a major trophy or until now, spent more than 4 years on the bounce in the top division.

As @El Presidente says, the vitriol in response to this is absolutely out of all proportion.

 

[Mackenzie]

He took the money, was useless at Chelsea and we ended up with a superior manager. Cheers Graham.

 

[chickens]

When you say attitude, you mean literally two quotes

One about an easy life - not sure why people are so riled about that one really. It's hardly controversial.
The other was a history lesson. Again, this was in response to being provided after some booing from a part of a fanbase that has never seen a major trophy or until now, spent more than 4 years on the bounce in the top division.

As @El Presidente says, the vitriol in response to this is absolutely out of all proportion.

I disagree on both counts. The first quote tells us that he’s not self-motivated, he relies on external pressure to motivate him, suggesting that if Tony/Paul aren’t on his arse that he’ll settle into a “comfortable” (for him) holding pattern.

The second quote similarly displays both a thin skin and a lack of ambition.

He felt he was beyond criticism, even when performances weren’t great, because he was keeping Brighton in the Premier League. It suggests that he’d unilaterally decided on what “Brighton’s level” was, and as far as he was concerned he was meeting it. That to me displays a concerning lack of continuing hunger.

You want your coach to be actively looking to improve everything. His comments, to me, painted a different picture. I don’t hate Potter, he was good for us, but he was too comfortable. Only hindsight has proven that correct though, I couldn’t have predicted it in advance. I was gutted when he left.

 

[highflyer]

When you say attitude, you mean literally two quotes

One about an easy life - not sure why people are so riled about that one really. It's hardly controversial.
The other was a history lesson. Again, this was in response to being provided after some booing from a part of a fanbase that has never seen a major trophy or until now, spent more than 4 years on the bounce in the top division.

As @El Presidente says, the vitriol in response to this is absolutely out of all proportion.

Because most emotional responses in football are entirely proportional?