POTTER’S THE PICK FROM OUR 1993 CREW

GRAHAM POTTER is a coach I like... and not many people will know that the Brighton boss is an old team-mate of mine.

We played together for England Under-18s around the time we won the UEFA European U-18 Championship in 1993. He was with Stoke, and while he didn’t make that final squad, he was in it for several matches around that period.

I remember him as a Steady Eddie, a quiet lad who got on with his job and did it well. People say now he wasn’t much of a player, but you have to be a player to represent your country.

We had some squad, the likes of Paul Scholes, Sol Campbell, Nicky Butt, Gary Neville and myself all going on to become full England internationals.

Graham wouldn’t have been particularly interested in coaching at that stage, but it’s obvious he is a deep thinker on the game, and has developed a really effective – and attractive – style of play.

I remember taking serious notice of his coaching career when I heard what he was achieving at Swedish club Ostersund, who he took from their fourth tier of football, all the way into the Europa League knockout stages.

To do that, and incredibly, beat Arsenal on their home turf, you need knowledge, organisation, communication, motivation and inspiration as a coach – and since then he hasn’t surprised me at all with his achievements.

Brighton have started the season so well, and you can see his influence is now really taking hold there, after finding his feet over the past two seasons.

Watching his team play, I like their flexibility. I like to think I have the same approach as a coach... though I’m not comparing myself just yet!

There’s this mantra that everyone goes on about, where coaches should have ‘philosophies’ and stick to their formations rigidly.

But he seems to be totally flexible in his thinking, introducing a very different formation offensively to the one Brighton utilise when they are defending.

It shows that Potter (left) has the ability to adapt and change his tactics – and that he doesn’t think it’s ‘all about him’.

I see so many coaches being so inflexible because they have a bit of a God complex.

They stick to the one style because they think they’re always right.

I think with his innovative style, and his way of getting the best

out of his team, Graham is proving to be a very good manager indeed – the best of that England class of ‘93 by far!