Graham Potter is smiling again, and honestly, good for him. The man went from being one of the most exciting coaches in English football to becoming a bit of a punchline after things fell apart at Chelsea and West Ham, and that was never entirely fair. Now he's gone and qualified Sweden for the World Cup, and the pride and joy he's spoken about feels completely genuine.
Potter has been pretty open about how much the Chelsea experience hurt him. He walked into an impossible situation at Stamford Bridge, with a squad being rebuilt on the fly and ownership that had the patience of a child on Christmas Eve. Things didn't work out, he got sacked, and then the West Ham stint was brief and brutal too. That sort of back-to-back rejection would knock the confidence out of most people, let alone a manager who had been so highly regarded after his work at Brighton.
What makes the Sweden story even better is the detail about Zlatan Ibrahimovic texting him with support and encouragement. Say what you like about Zlatan, the man knows how to make an entrance, even via text message. Having that kind of backing from a genuine Swedish football icon clearly meant something to Potter as he tried to rebuild his reputation on the international stage.
And here's the thing — international management suits certain coaches really well. You get time to think, you don't have the week-to-week grind of league football, and you can actually build something with a group of players who are there because they want to be. For a manager who clearly needed to rediscover his confidence, Sweden looks like it has been the perfect reset.
Potter was always a good coach. Brighton fans will tell you that, and they're not wrong. Sometimes the right job at the right time makes all the difference, and qualifying for a World Cup is a proper achievement regardless of the level of the squad involved. He deserves credit for bouncing back rather than disappearing into the background.
Let me know your thoughts.