『サッカーはプレイヤーのゲームだ。コーチのゲームではない。』

ここ最近でいちばん好きだったインタビュー記事。自分の職業について、自分の思想について、人生について、考えてしまいます。でも勢い余って進んでいくより、私は自分のことや今起こっていることに疑いを持ちながら進んでいくのが、合っているのかもしれない。

Graham Potter: ‘My friends don’t care about the Premier League – about this nonsense’

From the outside Potter may cut an implacable, unflappable sort of figure. But as with everyone there are flaws in the edifice. He admits to feeling self-doubt at times. He wishes he read or meditated a little more, but 50 games a season and three young children have largely put a stop to that. What he does strive for is work-life balance. “We like to dehumanise footballers and coaches,” he says. “Culturally, the coach has to be the first in and last out, working long hours, and I understand where that comes from. But it’s about balance, being able to see the bubble for what it is. See the noise for what it is.”

So on Sunday, rather than sitting in a dark room watching tapes of the Leeds game, he took the day off and spent time with his family. He’s kept the same circle of friends from when he was growing up in Solihull. “They don’t care about the Premier League,” he says. “They don’t care about this nonsense.”

翻訳記事になるといけないので、DeepLなどで翻訳をしてもらいながら読んでいただければと思いますが、いくつか私が印象に残った部分を抜粋していきます。

Does he ever find the lack of control maddening? In this country at least, we still cling to the trope of the manager as a sort of all-powerful deity: the megalomaniacal obsessive who bends the game to his will. And yet to watch the Leeds game was to be reminded of all the things a manager does not control. The players, the bounce of the ball, the referee, the conditions, the finances. “It’s an interesting one,” he says. “Culturally, we think we should be able to control it. But the reality is there’s a million things that are uncontrollable.

“Because football fundamentally is a players’ game. It’s not a coaches’ game. You can’t stop every five minutes and make adjustments. You can do some stuff on the sideline, but that’s just for show, really. Mostly the players have to take responsibility.”

Perhaps, in a way, this is the underrated part of management. Because the point at which you recognise you can’t do it all, you also recognise that you need the input of others. Potter is often described as a “people person”, and Brighton are a club crafted largely in the same image: decent folk pulling in a common cause. “That’s one of the reasons I came to this football club,” Potter says. “Not accepting that 95% of the league is determined by finance. Aiming high. Creating an environment that’s special.

“It’s not about having a bunch of nice guys here. You want different people, different perspectives, different characters. But it’s about whether you can share some sort of common ground in terms of how to be, how to act, how to respect each other, how to communicate. How to deal with disappointment. How to deal with success.”

ブライトンで監督を務めるGraham Potterは、このインタビューの中で、監督という存在について、またサッカーの本質的な部分について主に話しています。エミネムがラッパー“らしく”ない働き方（会社員のように決まった時刻に仕事を始めて決まった時刻に仕事を終える）をしている、という話を思い出しました。