25 February 2023 , 22:30
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Graham Potter is cut from a very different cloth to Antonio Conte – and there have been times of late when a lot of Chelsea fans have wished the current incumbent of the Stamford Bridge hot-seat was a lot more like the man who sat in it between 2016 and 2018.
Potter has had it from all angles that his personality — respectful as he is — doesn’t suit such a big job and that he needs to be more confrontational and spiky, just as predecessors such as Conte, Jose Mourinho and Thomas Tuchel all are. But despite their very different personalities, there is a huge mutual respect between Potter and Conte, whose Tottenham side host the Blues today.
And while Conte won’t be in the dugout as he continues his recovery from a gallbladder operation, a piece of advice the Italian once gave Potter is resonating greatly with him as he battles through the very difficult moment he finds himself in.
Potter said: “I spoke to him when I was at Brighton and we have had conversations. We have kept contact from a distance and he’s someone I’ve admired a lot as a coach, I like how his teams are organised, and then when you meet him he’s a gentleman, he has the passion but he has always been good to me.
"The best piece of advice he has given me was about doing your best today and not necessarily thinking too much about the future or the past. It was something that was on his WhatsApp message. I think he sent me that message after they’d beaten us — he didn’t send any when we’d won,” he added, laughing.
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Despite the criticisms, Potter is rightly determined to be his own man. Although it doesn’t mean he doesn’t admire the fiery traits that have served Conte so well. Potter said: “Absolutely, yes, because he is his himself and I don’t look at how he is and look down on him in anyway.
Chelsea manager Graham Potter is under mounting pressure at Stamford Bridge (Nick Potts/PA Wire)"Anyone who is a different person to me, I don’t think, ‘Oh, I’m better than them’, because that totally isn’t true. The best person to be Antonio Conte is Antonio Conte. The best person to be Graham Potter is Graham Potter. That’s how I see it.
“Everyone is different and you can’t help who you are. That’s just life. Of course, you can play a role and you can do stuff but you have to be yourself. But it isn’t nice then when people start to criticise you for being you because I can’t help being me. And [being me] has certainly gone well.
"I started off in the ninth tier of English football so it’s not so easy to get to this point and you have to have some resilience, some passion, some emotion, some courage, something that gets you to this point. I’ll be missing Antonio and I wish him a speedy recovery.”