I’ve noticed a worrying change with Graham Potter – this is what it reveals and why he can still get back to the top, writes IAN LADYMAN

This is a column that starts with a funny story from a time when there was not much to smile about.

We were still under Covid lockdown restrictions in 2020 when I was granted an interview with Graham Potter, manager of Brighton at the time.

It was not the first time we had spoken but even so there was some panic on my side of the Zoom call as I sat in my home office watching a Manchester storm batter the window and realised I had locked my fiancee and two-year-old daughter out of the house. My phone, it turned out, had been flashing manically for a reason.

As the frantic knocks on the door intensified I had no choice but to interrupt the conversation, tell Potter what had happened and carry the laptop down the stairs. He had been telling me about the passing of his parents at the time so it was awkward but Potter was gracious because that is the kind of bloke he is.

And then, as I tripped up the stairs and fell flat on my face on the way back, he carried on talking as though nothing had happened. Many top managers would not have been so patient and while it’s a decent dinner party tale, it’s also one I have been thinking about after watching Potter start to drown a little under the weight of life at West Ham following defeat at his old club last weekend.

I don’t know Potter particularly well but I once spent time with him on a training day when he was doing the media module of the FA Pro Licence at St George’s Park. I have interviewed him twice in person – without falling over on those occasions – and have listened to him talk and watched his teams play.

It alarms me slightly that at West Ham, Potter currently looks a little a manager whose walls are closing in on him

I have always found him one of these rare people in football whose words stay with you after you have spoken, the kind who makes you wonder if you can apply his messages to your life

He has never been anybody’s fool but equally has always been rounded enough and smart enough to see bigger pictures and context. I have always found him one of these rare people in football whose words stay with you after you have spoken, the kind who makes you wonder if you can apply any of his messages to your own life. It is probably no coincidence that he has a degree in emotional intelligence.

Once, for example, he talked about challenges in management and said he had always viewed the profession as a privilege.

‘Psychologically it can be a big challenge so I try to see it as something I am fortunate to experience,’ he told me in 2022. ‘I try to think, “I am getting this challenge that allows me possibly to fail but also to grow”.’

Some may dismiss this as guff but I don’t. It’s about dealing with defeat and disappointment and perceived failure and, in an environment where a single loss can be painted as the end of the world, I happen to think it’s valuable.

Which is why it alarms me slightly that at West Ham, Potter currently looks a little like a manager whose walls are closing in on him.

We should be careful about how much we read into press conference performances. Show me a manager who isn’t rattled after a defeat and I will show you one who probably doesn’t care enough. Even so, how a manager carries himself in front of the cameras and notebooks does offer a small window into their soul and Potter currently looks rather unrecognisable and it’s a worry.

His glowering countenance – reposted thousands of times by West Ham fans on social media this week – after two late goals sunk his team at the Amex Stadium was instructive from that point of view, particularly given it wasn’t the first time we had seen similar since joining the club in January.

Journalists can be annoying. We can lack tact and we can be blunt. Sometimes we don’t know as much as we think we do. But this stuff has never bothered Potter before, so why is it doing so now?

Journalists can be annoying… but this stuff has never bothered Potter before, so why is it doing so now?

West Ham have slumped down to 17th and have not won in the league since February

They will likely have to sell a big player this summer, but should still improve under Potter

West Ham was always going to be a challenge after his Chelsea sacking. It was always going to be more about next season than about this one. Potter’s team have struggled – particularly at home – but have won at Arsenal and I saw them play well at Chelsea and Liverpool where they twice lost narrowly and unjustly.

There will be financial challenges this summer. Mohammed Kudus will probably have to be sold. But still I would expect West Ham to improve after a pre-season with Potter.

He is a boots-on-the-grass kind of football coach – not a fire-fighter – and it is hard to do that kind of work in the short term. Chelsea, where he lasted six-and-a-half months, would have improved under the 49-year-old had they given him the time they promised him. But they didn’t and so the same circles continue to be travelled at Stamford Bridge.

Equally, the truth is that football management shapes people and changes people and not always for the better.

How long, for example, did it take David Moyes to recover from his Manchester United experience? Real Sociedad and Sunderland saw the Scot present like a wounded soldier. Coincidentally, it was not until his first go at West Ham that Moyes relocated his true sense of self again.

Is this what has happened to Potter? Has his first experience at a really big club damaged him? Has it removed some of that emotional and intellectual certainty that so characterised his early work as a manager?

When he spoke to Jake Humphrey’s High Performance Podcast last November, Potter was admirably candid about the deep impact of his Chelsea experience. He said he had to learn how to be a human being again. But what matters now is how he deals with the first big step of his recovery, his first job back in the big time.

Potter, if I am brutally honest, continues to look a little scarred. He looks like he is carrying a load and I hope he finds a way to rationalise it and package it up like he always did. If he doesn’t, he may not last. And that would be a shame as I remain convinced a very fine coach lies within.

Wembley’s double-edged sword 

The national stadium was crammed full and alive for the Crystal Palace and Aston Villa semi

But it turned out to be one hike to London too far for Manchester City fans and the spectacle suffered as a result

We have just witnessed the FA Cup semi-final debate in microcosm.

Saturday at Wembley was marvellous. The national stadium was crammed full and alive for the Crystal Palace and Aston Villa game.

Sunday was not marvellous. It turned out to be one hike to London too far for Manchester City fans and the spectacle suffered as a result.

Wembley is paid off. The FA no longer have a financial need to play their showpiece games there. So here’s an idea. Wait for the semi-final draw. If a game feels right for Wembley, use it. If it doesn’t, alternatives around the country are available.