Where to start with Graham Potter? How about with patience, because West Ham fans are probably going to need it. At Brighton, we had to sit through two-and-a-half years of a lot of poor results and performances before things clicked for Potter.
The Dark Days at the Amex
Between August 2019 and April 2022, he set some impressive club records. Two wins in 18 games at the beginning of the 2020-21 season was Albion’s worst ever start to a top flight campaign. Fourteen matches without an Amex victory represented the longest winless home run in Brighton history. Somehow eclipsing the Class of 1997-98 who played home games at Gillingham and finished 91st of 92 teams in the Football League. Thank goodness only one club went down to the Conference back then.
That terrible home record fed into just one home win in the calendar year of 2020. Potter was extremely fortunate the majority of that year was played out in an empty stadium thanks to Covid. Imagine the reaction of the London Stadium if you reached December and had seen West Ham victorious a single time in 12 months? There were also six consecutive losses home and away, and three months without a goal being scored at the Amex between January 2022 and April 2022.
The Infamous “History Lesson”
Another 12 games without a win over September, October, November and December 2021 saw a handful of Brighton fans boo towards the end of that sequence. Potter responded by saying to the media that maybe he needed a Brighton & Hove Albion history lesson. The implication being that Seagulls supporters fed up by not seeing a victory for four months should be quiet and appreciate his genius for having the Seagulls mid table in the Premier League.
Because of where Brighton had come from, how dare people hope for better. Comments made to look even more silly when Roberto De Zerbi made actual history by taking the Albion into Europe within seven months of replacing Potter. Potter’s reaction to 50 dissenting voices out of an Amex crowd of 30,000 show his notoriously thin skin. It was why the pressure cooker which was Chelsea was never likely to suit him. And certainly not the England job, where scrutiny is off the charts. Can’t handle a genteel Brighton fan base showing minor displeasure after 12 games without a win? Good luck when the tabloids are turning you into a cabbage on the front page, Graham.
When the “Magic” Finally Clicks
You Irons fans are probably thinking none of this sounds great so far. So back to the patience thing. It did eventually click for Potter, 33 months into his reign. Coinciding with the Albion debut of Moises Caicedo in a 2-1 win at Arsenal on Grand National Day 2022, Brighton lost just one of their next 13 games. Results and performances became spectacular.
We learnt at Brighton that Potter needs more time than most managers. He is the definition of a project manager. He will make team selections which have you wondering if he is picking his starting XI using a roulette wheel. Some of his formations were what you would expect from a university student playing Football Manager at 3am in the morning after a few too many magic mushrooms rather than a highly paid professional coach.
Loyalty, Legacy, and the West Ham Future
But once he works things out and it starts coming together, the results follow. Whether he can be a success at West Ham will ultimately depend on how much patience he gets from the board and the terraces. If fans turn en masse, he will bristle. If the board expects instant success, they will be in for a surprise.
The patience of Brighton fans and Tony Bloom in particular suited Potter. Not many Premier League club owners would have stuck with him through those horrible sequences of results and genuine concerns at point over relegation. Potter rewarded that loyalty from Bloom by leaving at the first sign of money within 14 games of it finally clicking, walking out for Chelsea whilst gutting the Albion of coaching staff who had been at the club long before him. The manner of his departure still rankles.
But you also have to acknowledge the good he did in transforming the style of play from Chris Hughton’s ultra defensive approach to become more possession based. Scoring goals was always a problem with the Kings of xG tag well earned but even that seemed to be an issue finally sorted towards the end of Potter’s time. The Albion were in the battle for European qualification at the point he left in September 2022. Potter laid the groundwork for De Zerbi to build upon. If West Ham give him time, there is no reason why he can’t repeat the trick in east London.
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