Graham Potter Biography

Graham Potter, born 20 May 1975 in Solihull, is an English coach and former professional footballer. Having started his playing career in Birmingham City in 1992, he played a total of 320 league matches for many English clubs, with most of them being at the football league level.

One of the highlights of Graham Potter’s playing career was when he signed for Southampton in the 1996-97 season when they were playing in the English Premier League. During his short spell there, Potter played only 8 league matches for the club.

He has played the majority of his career for York City between 2000 and 2003, appearing in a total of 114 league matches and scoring 5 goals. In 2005, Graham Potter retired from playing football after playing 57 matches for Macclesfield Town.

In 1996, when he was a Southampton player, Graham Potter was called up to the U21 England national team, playing one match for the team.

After a six-year absence from the world of football, in 2011 Graham Potter made his comeback to the football, this time as a head coach when he took charge of the Swedish club Östersunds FK. Following an eight-year tenure in Sweden and winning many titles with them, he left for Swansea City in 2018.

All You Need to Know About Graham Potter Biography

After the Brighton & Hove Albion club sacked their manager Chris Hughton, they appointed Graham Potter as their new head coach in May 2019 and is currently managing them in the English Premier League.

Graham Potter Information

Now that we know the English coach much better, in this section of

Graham Potter biography

we will share more general information about him such as

Graham Potter nationality

to let you know him even better.

Graham Potter Bio

• Full Name: Graham Stephen Potter

• Nickname: N/A

• Profession: Professional Football Coach

Graham Potter Physical Stats

• Weight: 75 Kg

• Height: 1.85 m

• Eye Color: Blue

• Hair Color: Blonde

Graham Potter Football Information

• Position: Left-Back

• Jersey Number: 3

• Professional Debut: 1992

Graham Potter Date of Birth and Personal Info

• Date of Birth: 20 May 1975

• Birth Place: Solihull, England

• Zodiac Sign: Taurus

• Nationality: English

Now stay tuned to this section of

Graham Potter biography

as we want to share some info about

Graham Potter childhood

.

Graham Potter Early Life

Potter arrived at

while he was still at school in 1989 and signed as a young trainee in 1991. The following year he earned his first professional contract with the second division club, debuting as a 17-year-old in a 0-0 draw with Charlton Athletic under Terry Cooper on 1 November 1992.

The youngster went on to play 18 league games throughout the season, mainly as an attacking left-back, although he sometimes struggled with positional play. He only played in the English-Italian Cup at the start of the following year and was soon after loaned out to fourth division side

for a month.

Stoke City

Potter joined

in the Football League First Division in December 1993, and Birmingham received Kenny Lowe in return, plus a transfer fee of £75,000. Potter made only five competitive appearances for the remainder of the season, failing to find a way past regular Lee Sandford and the versatile John Butler in the following season.

In 1995/96 Potter made his breakthrough at Stoke after being moved to left-wing by manager Lou Macari, where he excelled with his pace and well-hit crosses. Over the course of the season, he made a total of 51 competitive appearances and finished fourth in the final table. The team then lost out to Leicester City in the semi-finals of the play-offs for promotion to the Premier League.

Southampton FC

His reward for a strong season at Stoke was not only a £250,000 move to Premier League side

but also a call-up to the England Under-21 squad, in which he played in a 2-0 win in Moldova in August 1996 as part of the qualifying campaign for the 1998 European Under-21 Championship.

Graeme Souness had taken over at Southampton and Potter was the first signing for the 1996/97 season on the advice of assistant coach Terry Cooper. But Potter was unable to establish himself at Southampton, earning just three starting appearances and seven further competitive appearances as a substitute, one of which was in the 6-3 league win over Manchester United, before leaving in February 1997.

Now stay tuned to this section of Graham Potter biography as we want to share some info about his WBA career.

West Bromwich Albion

, a second division club where Ray Harford had only recently taken over as manager, paid £300,000 for the left-back's services. Potter was subsequently left out of the squad and in October 1997 he was sent out on a two-month loan to third division side

, making only four appearances.

Potter only played a few games at left-back in the spring of 1998 as a substitute for the doping suspended Shane Nicholson, but lost this place again to Jason van Blerk towards the end of the season. At the beginning of the following 1998/99 season, he played as a substitute behind van Blerk, but after the middle of the season, he made more appearances - a total of 22 league appearances - and worked well on the left with Kevin Kilbane.

Potter's playing time was once again limited in the 1999/2000 season, and in the meantime, he was loaned out for a month to third-division club Reading, who were short of players to play on the left. As Potter was not eligible to play for Reading in the FA Cup, Potter's service to the club was limited and a permanent signing did not happen.

During the season, West Bromwich signed other players to compete with Potter and by the end of the season, his expiring contract was not extended after 47 competitive appearances in three and a half years.

York City

In July 2000 Potter joined a new club, York City, in the fourth division. He struggled to adapt to the rustic style of play, but following an injury lay-off, he settled into the team and excelled not only as an attacking full-back but also at taking free kicks and corners.

A 3-0 home defeat to Exeter City in February 2001 saw York bottom of the table, but just two defeats in the remaining 16 league games averted their relegation to non-league football. The club's relegation was secured by Potter with a stoppage-time corner at Torquay United in a 2-2 draw on the third last day of the season.

He continued to be a regular at York City for the next two seasons, with occasional goalscoring exploits, which included goals against higher-ranked Colchester United and

in the 2001/02 FA Cup, which was the first time since 1986 that the club had reached the fourth round of the competition, where Fulham FC proved too strong (2-0 final scoreline).

Boston United

Potter joined league rivals

in the summer of 2003, rejecting an offer of a contract extension from

. In Boston, he was played on the left side in both midfield and defence but was unable to earn a regular place. Following his transfer clearance in November 2003, he was shortly afterwards loaned out for a month to fifth division side

, with a permanent deal collapsing for financial reasons.

Macclesfield Town

In February 2004, Potter eventually found a new club within the league with Macclesfield Town. The club was in the relegation places for a long time and only under Brian Horton, they managed to stay in the league with four wins in the last seven match days. Potter continued to be a regular in 2004/05, frequently in his preferred position as an attack-minded full-back, finishing as his side's third top scorer with six league goals.

Unlike the previous season, they were playing for promotion and finished fifth in the table to qualify for the play-offs. He missed the last few weeks of the season with a hamstring injury and did not play a part in the narrow semi-final defeat to Lincoln City. However, despite these performances, he failed to get a new contract by coach Horton at the end of the season and later retired from the game.

Now stay tuned to this section of

Graham Potter biography

as we want to share some info about his coaching career.

Graham Potter Profile

Potter made contact with Daniel Kindberg, at the time sporting director of Swedish club

, via his former teammate Graeme Jones around 2009. Following the club's relegation to the fourth division in late 2010, Kindberg, then club president, recruited Potter as head coach.

He helped the club achieve direct promotion in 2011 and a promotion to Superettan in 2012. Following three years in the second division, the team won promotion to the Allsvenskan for the first time in 2015, when they finished runners-up in the championship.

In their debut season in Sweden's top division, Östersunds ended in 8th place in the table and was never in a relegation spot throughout the season. With his team's successes, Potter aroused a certain football enthusiasm in the city of 50,000 inhabitants, which was traditionally more inclined towards winter sports, and the average number of spectators rose from 600 on his arrival to over 5,000.

Comparisons were regularly made with Roy Hodgson, particularly in the English press, who also began his coaching career in Sweden, won several championships and cups, and, along with Bob Houghton, also revolutionized Swedish football in terms of tactics.

Potter led his team to the first national title in the club's history in the 2016/17 Swedish Cup competition with a 4-1 final win over IFK Norrköping. It was also the first time the club had qualified for a European Cup competition. In the qualifying rounds for the 2017/18 UEFA Europa League, the team knocked out Turkish record-holders Galatasaray Istanbul, CS Fola Esch and PAOK Thessaloniki to surprisingly qualify for the group stage of the competition.

Here, the team also started successfully with victories over Sorja Luhansk and Hertha BSC and ultimately qualified for the knockout stage of the competition in second place in the table behind Athletic Bilbao. However, after a 3-0 home defeat and a 2-1 away win, the team was knocked out by English representatives Arsenal FC.

Swansea City

In June 2018, Potter was introduced as the new coach of Premier League relegated side

. While Swansea paid Östersunds a transfer fee for the move, assistant coach Billy Reid and game analyst Kyle Macaulay also joined the Wales-based club from his coaching staff in Sweden.

His first match as coach of the Swansea City club came on 4 August 2018, when the team managed to win their first match in the Championship against Sheffield United. By winning their next league match against Preston North End, the club had made a flying start to the season under Graham Potter.

Their first defeat of the season came on 25 August as they lost 0-1 at home to Bristol City. At the end of the season, Swansea finished 10th in the table, thus failing to make it to the playoffs. In the FA Cup, they also made it to the sixth round, when they were defeated 3-2 against Manchester City.

Now stay tuned to this section of Graham Potter biography as we want to share some info about his Brighton career.

Brighton & Hove Albion

For the 2019/20 season, he joined

as head coach in the Premier League. In his first match on the bench of Brighton, he managed to clinch a strong 0-3 away win against Watford. His first season at the club was a mixed one, and they only managed to finish 15th in the table, thus avoiding relegation.

His second season in charge of the Brighton & Hove Albion club was no different, and Potter and his team finished 16th in the

. However, so far in the 2021-22 season, they have done much better and are 6th in the league with 13 points in 6 matches.

Style of Play

Many football critics regard Graham Potter to be one of the most tactical football coaches currently working in the English Premier League and a coach capable of playing with many various systems of play during a single season with his teams. During his time at Östersunds FK, although he started with 3-4-3 and 3-5-2 with three-man defensive lines, his team were also very comfortable with systems like 4-3-3 and even 5-4-1.

The same goes for Brighton & Hove Albion as they play with various systems such as 3-4-2-1, 3-4-3 and 4-4-2, among others.

Reception

Considered as one of the top names in the new generation of English coaches, Graham Potter managed to earn a great reputation in his first club as he guided Östersunds FK from the fourth tier of Swedish football to the highest level in the country. Many pundits believe that in the coming years, we are going to hear much more about Potter and can expect him to manage bigger clubs in the near future.

Graham Potter outside Football

Potter is one of those coaches who had fully dedicated his life to football and has no other business other than it. However, as a family guy, he spends almost all of his spare time with his wife and three children when he is not on the pitch coaching his Brighton boys.

Graham Potter Personal Life

In this section of Graham Potter biography, we will take a deeper look into his personal life and share some information about things like

Graham Potter life story

and

Graham Potter religion

, stay tuned.

Family, Children and Relationships

Graham Potter has been married to his wife Rachel for so many years now. They have three children, an eleven years old son named Charlie and the twins (Sam and Theo) who are five and a half now. Graham has always said that his wife Rachel is the one who manages the family and he has always been just a diaper changer in raising the children.

Philanthropy

During his career in football, he has always been a supporter of many charitable activities. Back in April 2020, the Brighton players launched the “Albion As One” foundation to raise money to give to charities, and Potter was also one of the team members to donate money.

Legal Issues

At the time of writing this article, there are no reports of any legal issues or disputes regarding Graham Potter in the media.

Graham Potter Career Statistics

In this section of Graham Potter biography, we will take a look at his career stats on the international and club level.

Club

Between 1992 and 2005 that Potter was playing as a professional footballer for many British clubs, he made a total of 377 appearances and scored 19 goals.

Managerial

Graham Potter has a win ratio of 44.8 percent with 176 wins, 101 draws and 116 defeats in a total of 393 matches that he has so far managed his teams.

Graham Potter Honors

He has won all of his titles and trophies as the manager of the Swedish football club Östersund, including the Svenska Cupen, Division 1 Norra and the Division 2 Norrland. He has also finished runner-up with the Swedish club in the Superettan.

On an individual level, he has won the Swedish Football Awards Manager of the Year for two consecutive years and the Swedish Sports Awards Coach of the Year in 2017.

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