![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/the-rise-of-graham-potter-chelsea-manager-chokes-up-reflecting-on-his-journey/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/TELEMMGLPICT000314281710_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwbq5v-5dkpJ2hEWYppeJOq0.jpeg&description=The vertiginous rise of Graham Potter has taken in some startling new places in the last seven weeks alone, including a win at San Siro, although the significance of a return to Brighton and Hove Albion, the club who made him a Premier League manager, was not lost on him. The early Chelsea days have been some experience for Potter, still unbeaten and in contention to be the club's first English manager to go through an opening ten games without defeat. His rapid coronation as Thomas Tuchel's successor saw him leave Brighton without a farewell to the supporters, although it was the early days in Sussex which he reflected upon Friday at Cobham. He goes back to Brighton on Saturday as Chelsea manager, describing his initial experience there in 2019 as akin to 'fixing the plane while it's up in the air.' That first season, 2019-20, was interrupted by Covid and then ended with a summer relegation battle in empty stadiums from which Brighton eventually emerged from with Premier League status intact. In that period both Potter's parents passed away and he was forced to examine his own state of mind. 'You're going, 'Ok, I've got these feelings here that are powerful and raw' but then you're also trying to compete in the Premier League. Then you're trying to manage it: 'Why am I getting angry or disappointed or frustrated or whatever the feelings are?' So that was the first six months of life in the Premier League. "Thankfully I was at a really good club that gave me support and help and we managed to stay on the path.' Asked later to reflect on that time, Potter said there was at least scope for his father to see him as a Premier League manager, something that was not possible for his mother in the late stages of dementia. His emotion just briefly got the better of him as he wondered what his parents would have made of their son managing in the Champions League.){kind=link}
Potter lost both parents during first season at Brighton where he returns in the away dugout on Saturday
The vertiginous rise of Graham Potter has taken in some startling new places in the last seven weeks alone, including a win at San Siro, although the significance of a return to Brighton and Hove Albion, the club who made him a Premier League manager, was not lost on him.
The early Chelsea days have been some experience for Potter, still unbeaten and in contention to be the club’s first English manager to go through an opening ten games without defeat.
His rapid coronation as Thomas Tuchel’s successor saw him leave Brighton without a farewell to the supporters, although it was the early days in Sussex which he reflected upon Friday at Cobham. He goes back to Brighton on Saturday as Chelsea manager, describing his initial experience there in 2019 as akin to “fixing the plane while it’s up in the air.”
That first season, 2019-20, was interrupted by Covid and then ended with a summer relegation battle in empty stadiums from which Brighton eventually emerged from with Premier League status intact. In that period both Potter’s parents passed away and he was forced to examine his own state of mind.