Graham Potter

“From a football perspective, putting young footballers into art, or singing - you're doing something that's not so familiar. It has helped us build a team and build a spirit.”

“I remember playing against the great Manchester United teams when I was a player.”

“The pressure of the Premier League is huge but so is moving your family across the world to a club where they had sacked the manager every year for the last five.”

“Football is quite easy when you're doing well and winning games. It's when things aren't so good and they get tough, that's when the character and attitude stand up.”

“I needed to learn to be a coach initially. I think if I'd gone into professional football when I stopped playing when I was 30 years old I'd have failed because I'd have made too many mistakes because I had no real idea at that time.”

“Sometimes it helps to see the world through someone else's eyes.”

“I don't think it's fair to say the standard of English coaching is bad. It's more about pathway: how you can get a break and then progress from there. Even at the lowest levels there is impatience now, so you need a bit of luck in terms of the owner or chairman that you work with.”

“Without those experiences in higher education I wouldn't have been able to do this job. It taught me a more holistic approach and prepared me for the experience of working abroad, where your cultural beliefs are challenged and, sometimes, turned on their head.”

“Educating players and being part of the community are very important.”

“We try and play football in a positive way. Any team has to be defensively organised, but you have to look at the attributes of the players and play to their strengths.”

“They're human beings before they're footballers and it's important to understand how can I help them. What do they need? How can they feel part of this? How can they feel they're improving in their career, because my job is to help them get better, play better football, earn a better contract, whatever it is.”

“I remember doing my first coaching sessions at Macclesfield, when I was still playing, and I was just terrible. I felt really uncomfortable standing in front of people, and it felt very odd. It was not something I was naturally comfortable with at all.”

“Whenever you start a new job, it's always a bit daunting, the unknown.”

“I played football because I loved the game - but I didn't enjoy the focus on not making mistakes and the culture being essentially one of blame and a little fear.”

“I was only picking up short-term contracts in the lower leagues. I thought that rather than the game kick me out, I'd be proactive about it.”

“Sometimes there is a disconnect between footballers and supporters, because there are highly-paid people here and supporters over there, and nothing in between.”

“If you can have a career as a footballer for 13 years then you're really lucky, but there will probably be plenty of supporters up and down the country saying that I wasn't a top player, to put it kindly. That's for sure.”

“We are our own worst enemies and as a coach you can help people recognise that, raise their self-awareness and then see if they change or do anything about it.”

“The profile is to find if someone can perform in the Championship and help you win, and also play in the Premier League because that has to be the goal.”

“We want our teams to be able to entertain the supporters - they're such an important part of the industry, sometimes forgotten a bit. At the Amex they'll be very important for us. So we'll try and entertain. At the same time I know we're in the results business. I'm not naive.”