What Passion Really Looks Like

The Curious Coaching of Chelsea's Graham Potter

For the last two weeks, Chelsea head coach Graham Potter has been answering questions about whether he’s angry enough.

After a clear handball wasn’t awarded and potentially cost Chelsea a win against West Ham, Potter refused to abuse the referee or make outlandish statements in his post-game press conference.

“It was a good save,” he quipped, adding: “It looks like a handball to me. But it’s not for me to say. Sometimes they go for you and sometimes they don’t, you just have to accept that.”

Pundits ridiculed Potter, suggesting he demonstrated inexperience and a lack of judgment for his show of emotional intelligence. The argument was that he wasn’t angry enough. And by virtue of not being angry enough, the insinuation was that he wasn’t passionate enough.

Apparently, a coach who has worked his way up from English football’s ninth-tier, via Sweden’s fourth-tier, all the way to the dizzying heights of the Premier League, isn’t passionate enough.

Apparently, the only way you can show your true passion for the game is through a volcanic outburst at the expense of the referee.

Apparently, despite having a Master’s degree in leadership and emotional intelligence, Graham Potter should have betrayed his education in favour of being a raving lunatic on the touchline.

Speaking to BBC Radio, my friend Sarah Murray, a renowned sport psychologist in the UK, had this to say:

“Six months ago with a different club from a media perception he was fantastic, doing a great job, high in emotional intelligence, showing these things that perhaps we hadn’t seen from managers in the past – a new style, an understanding of the player beyond the badge. We fast-forward six months and suddenly he is vilified for not being aggressive enough and for maintaining a consistent and transparent narrative of who he is and not backing down on that. From a psychological point of view, it’s interesting to watch the response of the fans and the media to that – and fundamentally saying six months ago we need people with a human interest and now they need to be aggressive and win at all costs, and with that comes a human cost.”

Graham Potter’s plight shows us how some strongly held beliefs still persist in coaching, in the face of overwhelming evidence.

Abusing a referee is not good coaching, and only serves to give permission for your players and fans to do the same thing.

Anger does not equal competence.

And anger certainly does not equal passion.

Rather, here’s what passion looks like for a head coach:

• Connecting deeply with your players, regardless of their place on the team or current form.

• Respecting the difficulty and brilliance of participating in elite competition.

• Acting in a manner that best represents your club, yourself, and the game.

• Sticking to your values and morals in the face of nonsensical vilification.

• Developing yourself outside of X’s and O’s (like pursuing a Master’s in leadership emotional intelligence).

• Having a well-rounded life where you don’t buy into the ‘first-in, last-out’ grindset.

• Implementing a ‘No Blame Culture’ within your team to allow

All of this is what a passionate coach looks like.

We should be learning from Graham Potter, not making him an outcast.