Graham Potter

We are our own worst enemies and as a coach you can help people recognise that, raise their self-awareness and then see if they change or do anything about it.

My mum had always pressed on me to continue my education, and it was just the volatility of sport in terms of not being able to control the result.

I needed to learn to be a coach initially. I think if I'd gone into professional football when I stopped playing when I was 30 years old I'd have failed because I'd have made too many mistakes because I had no real idea at that time.

We want our teams to be able to entertain the supporters - they're such an important part of the industry, sometimes forgotten a bit. At the Amex they'll be very important for us. So we'll try and entertain. At the same time I know we're in the results business. I'm not naive.

Ultimately, good players need to play and they don't always at a young age in England.

I had five years in the university sector which was a time where I could make my mistakes, develop with the students and players there. I also worked with the people at the university to put some concept and theory on my own experiences.

At Ostersunds, we had half the players who were part-time and working and the other half were full-time.

You cannot win all the time and, often, we don't win that much. You have to have something and I think if we can create an environment where people genuinely think that we are trying to help them, trying to improve them and make them better, then OK, maybe they will try a bit harder, and do a bit better for the team and the club.

I got a job as a football development manager which meant I could coach the students and work with the sports sciences department, all the people in university sector.

My unglittering football career came to a halt at the age at 30, and I had to embark on a coaching career: 14 years of hard work and sacrifice, learning and mistakes.

I don't think it's fair to say the standard of English coaching is bad. It's more about pathway: how you can get a break and then progress from there. Even at the lowest levels there is impatience now, so you need a bit of luck in terms of the owner or chairman that you work with.