One of the lowest moments of Graham Potter's short time at Chelsea came when someone outside the football department tried to tell him which team to pick for an important home game. At West Ham he will surely hope that things are not like that.
Potter has taken his time returning to football (April marks two years since he was sacked by Chelsea) and has chosen another London club where ambition and expectations are high and lines of command can become blurred.
From the outside, Potter and West Ham don't look like a match made in football heaven. Potter preaches and values the long term, a coach who measures progress and improvement incrementally. West Ham always seem to be in a hurry to get somewhere and when it doesn't happen, frustrations and anxieties grow at a similar rate.
But much of what happens once Potter is confirmed as Julen Lopetegui's replacement will depend on what version of the 49-year-old has emerged from his damaging and traumatic seven months at Stamford Bridge.
The Potter we met at Brighton was progressive and intelligent, a clever in-game strategist who improved players, showed them how to beat big-name opponents and transitioned a playing style from pragmatic to bold.
At Chelsea it was different. There were mitigating factors in west London. A damaging injury list, a starting team that promised him time and didn't give it and a transfer policy over which he barely had control. Remember that crazy January 2023 when Chelsea spent £300m? Potter says he advised the club against it but they did it anyway.
Graham Potter is set to return to management taking over as West Ham boss.
Potter has taken his time returning to management after a damaging seven months at Chelsea.
Potter did not have the time promised by the Chelsea owners and faced an inflated squad
However, Potter ultimately failed to take over the job at Chelsea. His players liked him but didn't always respect him. Some of them called him 'Harry' (Potter) behind his back. When he faced a squad of more than 30 players, he had a hard time managing it. Enzo Maresca has now shown that this is possible.
And it will be the extent to which this has shaped, improved or damaged Potter that will probably be most important now. It's no coincidence that it took so long to get back into the game. The Chelsea experience represented his first failure as a manager and it took him a long time to recover.
Talks with Leicester, Nottingham Forest and Wolves at different stages went nowhere. I wasn't sure and certainly, in terms of the last two, neither were they. And the backdrop to much of that has been a man trying to deal with what he described as “the anger, bitterness, frustration and sadness” of having been lured in and then spit out by a big football club.
In a recent podcast interview with Jake Humphrey, Potter talked about figuring out how to be a human being again and trying to reconnect with his children. He previously told Mail Sport how difficult it was for his young son when Potter moved from Sweden to take the Swansea job in the summer of 2018.
From that moment on, his family has been at the center of his professional decisions and it is perhaps no coincidence that he has now accepted another posting in London, a short distance from his home on the south coast.
Failure, perceived or real, changes football managers and it will be interesting to see Potter begin his second coming. There is a danger that he has overanalyzed his experiences at Chelsea. He admits that he has asked himself some probing questions and has had professional help while doing so.
Potter remains a talented and innovative coach, a driver of good cultures and someone committed to creating pathways for young players. West Ham could certainly use a dose of all that, but they will also demand results quickly. When he arrived at Brighton in May 2019, owner Tony Bloom gave him three years to get the club to where it needed to be. You won't get that time in east London. Not a bit of that.
Potter has described his time at Chelsea as being in a washing machine and there is no reason to suggest that an experience at West Ham will be any different. Both Lopetegui and his predecessor David Moyes have experienced chain of command issues under director of football Tim Steidten and that will be the first line in the sand the incoming manager may wish to draw.
Potter showed at Brighton that he is an innovative coach, but West Ham will want quick results
West Ham have a squad that lacks balance and are currently without captain Jarrod Bowen
There is talent in the West Ham squad, but it is unclear to what extent they are prepared to work.
West Ham wanted Potter until the end of the season, which does not show long-term thinking
West Ham also have a squad that lacks balance and is missing captain Jarrod Bowen due to a serious injury. Another striker, Michail Antonio, is recovering from a car accident, while one more, big summer signing Niclas Fullkrug, has failed to make an impact since arriving last summer.
There is talent in the West Ham squad but it also drifts. Players like Mohammed Kudus and Lucas Paqueta have deep ability, but how hard are they willing to work? Potter will have seen the video like the rest of us.
At Brighton, Potter certainly benefited from Bloom's data-driven smart recruiting model. His team that began the 2022/23 season with a victory at Manchester United had Moisés Caicedo, Alexis MacAllister, Leandro Trossard and Robert Sánchez in it. That quartet cost a combined £25m. Suffice to say, West Ham's recent record in the market is quite different.
So Potter's return to management comes with question marks. West Ham's first move was to suggest terms until the end of the season. Not much long term planning shown there.
We should be grateful that Potter is returning to work. We need British coaches in the Premier League and he is one of the best. However, he said on Humphrey's podcast that all a manager can ask for is a “good club with good leadership”.
If we hope to see the best side of Graham Potter once again, then we should expect something similar from West Ham as well.