Graham Potter says he has battled with mental health throughout his career
The former Chelsea boss was speaking on the High Performance Podcast
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By SPENCER MORGAN
Published: 08:17 EST, 1 December 2024 | Updated: 08:17 EST, 1 December 2024
Graham Potter has opened up about his mental health struggles and revealed he battles feelings of imposter syndrome.
The former Chelsea manager said he has experienced feelings of inadequacy throughout his 30 year career.
The 49 year old also said there is a 'stigma' around male football coaches and their mental health, saying they have to be perceived as 'alpha males'.
Potter said after his sacking from Chelsea, he spoke to a psychologist to help him work through his thoughts.
He also said he struggled with reconnecting with his family again after parting ways with the Premiership club.
Speaking to the High Performance Podcast, Potter said he has often had to battle mental health issues.
Graham Potter opened up about his mental health struggles and battle with imposter syndrome
He said: 'Some days you have good days where physically you feel strong and some days you're going 'ok, I need to think about this, I need to understand that this is challenging, my confidence isn't as high as it could be' and you need to regulate yourself.
'But that's been the case all my life - the inner voice, the imposter syndrome.
'All these concepts that people talk about, they're all there in all of us but at different stages they'll hit you more and that's when you've got to do your work.
'But the point is, whenever you speak about something like mental health, there's such a stigma because on the flipside is really bad stuff - losing lives, hospitalised.
'But there will also be days where you're just not having a very good day and it's still mental health, it's on a different level of the spectrum.
'I still think if you do [talk about mental health] there's a feeling that if you do there's a weakness to it, there still is.
'The cultural alpha male position of a coach is you've got to be strong, all-knowing, thick-skinned, don't care about anyone else, all that kind of stuff.
'The reality is we're human beings and whilst we can say this and give a perspective that we don't care about anything, we're human being and wee're programmed to be socially connected and we're programmed to want people to like us.'
Potter took charge of Chelsea in the summer of 2022 but was dismissed after just seven months
Potter - who had previously managed Brighton - was sacked by Chelsea in April 2023 after disappointing results.
He said: 'You have to deal with that frustration, you have to deal with that anger and try to make sense of it...
'It's easy to point the finger at someone else.
'You have to really work hard psychologically I think - and I've had some help from people as well because I don't think you can do it on your own.'
He compared his sacking to 'grieving'.
He said: 'Anger, sadness, disappointment... Just when you think you're out of the woods, all of a sudden you'll have another setback.
'Especially in football, the setback was always every Saturday when the teams are going and playing and you get a reminder of stuff.
'You're trying to work out how to be a human being again, you're adapting to not being in football, it's the first time in 30 years I've not had a game on the weekend.
'How do I reconnect with my kids? Because my wife would say to me 'you're here, but you're not here' sometimes when I was a football manager.'
He added: 'I just focused a lot on self-care. I went to the gym, I tried to sleep better, [my] diet was better.
'Through conversations with friends, with family, with professionals that helped me through to make sense of it all.'
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