It is more than two months since Viktor Gyokeres's 89th-minute goal sealed Sweden's extraordinary World Cup play-off victory over Poland at a delirious Strawberry Arena in Stockholm, but Graham Potter is still finding new ways to enjoy it.
"If you go to YouTube, you can watch the Swedish commentary. I didn't see it at the time but I looked at it a couple of months afterwards. Just the emotion in the voice. Then Viktor scores and it's like an out-of-body experience. I can only describe it as that.
"All our subs are just literally running on the pitch. There are 15 players on the pitch and I'm thinking, 'That's yellow cards, that's problems.' But, of course, it's a World Cup, so all the rules are out the window, you know? The feeling in the stadium was just incredible."
Potter had never experienced jubilation like it. "The best night of my career." How did he celebrate? He smiles. "Got f****** p****d! You have to deal with the down times in football and then enjoy the times when it goes your way and you're maybe a bit lucky."
The result is that Sweden, who finished bottom of their qualifying group, needing the lifeline of their Nations League performance to even take one of the four play-off spots, are now gearing up for only their second World Cup appearance since 2006.
It is huge for the country. "From an economic perspective, from an aspirational perspective, for the kids," adds Potter, their head coach and now national hero, who, having only taken the job in October, is realising a childhood dream of his own.
"Obviously we know how times have changed, but my first football memory is '86, 11 years old, watching Diego Maradona rip football up. That's when I started to go, 'Wow, this is amazing.'
"Back in those days, the World Cup was the only time you could see football on the telly, apart from maybe the FA Cup. As a kid, that's where I started. So, to get the chance to experience that and to work in that environment, it's a dream."
Potter's last two club roles, with Chelsea and West Ham, ended unhappily. But he has extended his contract with Sweden to 2030 and, over the course of nearly an hour in his company in central London, it is clear he has been reinvigorated by his new position.
It was of course in Sweden, during a spell in charge of Ostersunds, that his career took off. Pep Guardiola later described him as the best English manager. He might be crossing the Atlantic as England boss this summer had things worked out differently.
But there is no doubting the authenticity of his feelings for Sweden. "Two of my kids were born in Sweden," he says. "I had seven unbelievable years there, memories that will stay with me for life. I've got an incredible amount to be grateful to the country for.
"For seven years it was my home. And now I'm working for the Swedish FA and I'm the head coach of the national team, so I feel very Swedish." He jokes that he looks Swedish too, although it doesn't help him avoid the attention of fans in the street. "I've got one of those faces that gets recognised, which is not a positive thing," he chuckles.
He will sing their national anthem at the tournament and recalls the emotion of hearing it for the first time as head coach. "Really in the stomach. It's surprising. I think it's because you're aware that you're doing something for more than you. It's a bigger thing.
"The players and everybody connected with the team, if they weren't there, they would be supporting the team. That's the feeling you have. So, you can feel the intensity and the emotion is different, and I think that's what's beautiful about it.
"To be part of what we have achieved is amazing. It's so nice to have experienced that positivity through football because obviously recently I haven't had too much of that, so it's nice on a human level."
Fuelled by West Ham, Chelsea pain
As well as reopening his eyes to the beauty of football, the Sweden job is giving Potter a chance to rebuild his career. His sacking from West Ham in September, his second in two and a half years after Chelsea, was a low point which prompted introspection.
"Of course, you have to reflect on all these things that happen and try to put everything in perspective," he explains.
"But then sometimes in football, you just can't rationalise it, so you just go, 'OK, well, maybe it wasn't meant to be.'
"And then you try to move on with your life. That's it really. The learnings you take, the learnings you have from these experiences, they're painful in a way because you have to go in.
"I won't share my learnings with you because it has f****** hurt me to get them, you know what I mean? And I think it should because that's how you improve. That's how you get better.
"There was a line that I heard: you've got to be prepared to face the bad stuff. The more you can prepare to face it, the more chance your life is better. That's how I see it.
"So, you could carry on like this all your life, and that's what it is, or you can accept things that are like, 'Oh, this could be tough' or 'this could be challenging'.
"And then maybe the flip side is that you get these beautiful moments. I will never forget that night in Stockholm.
"So, while there are some dark moments that of course you have to experience - and they're not very nice - there are some beautiful moments that you can't even describe."
It helped, he adds, to throw himself into his new challenge quickly. Potter took the Sweden job, initially on a short-term deal, only a few weeks after his West Ham exit.
"Really, after West Ham, I could have done two things: I could have sat around and talked, done media, gone on TV and all that sort of stuff. Or I could go and work - and do something nice. It isn't nice if you don't win, so you have to win. Thankfully we did that."
Unlocking Gyokeres and Isak
His focus now is on getting the maximum out of the group he has selected for the World Cup. Sweden face Tunisia in Monterrey in their opening game on June 15, then it's Netherlands in Houston on June 20 and Japan in Arlington on June 26.
Whittling his squad down to 26 players wasn't easy. "Probably the toughest conversations I've had." But some players picked themselves in Arsenal's Gyokeres, scorer of four goals in two games in the play-offs, and Liverpool's Alexander Isak.
Potter has history with both players. He remembers Gyokeres as a teenaged forward desperate to prove himself during his time as head coach of Brighton. "He was at a stage where you could tell he wanted and needed to play," he explains.
Isak, meanwhile, introduced himself even earlier, as an unknown 16-year-old making his first senior start for AIK against Ostersunds.
"We were quite happy before the game because the centre-forward wasn't playing and some 16-year-old kid was playing," Potter recalls with a chuckle. "And then he scored and we got beat 2-0, and I learned my lessons from that. He reminds me pretty much every time he sees me."
Potter has been surprised by the criticism aimed at Gyokeres during his first season at Arsenal. "It's a great example of the modern world and modern football, really," he says.
"From our perspective, he scored four goals in two games and got us to the World Cup, so his impact is incredible. From Arsenal's perspective, he's played his role in the team and scored his goals.
"The team have won the Premier League and got to the Champions League final, and he's played most of those games, but he still gets the criticism. That's the world we live in. But then you just look at him and you look at how much work he does and how he goes about his business. He's an incredible character."
Isak joins up with the squad having experienced far greater challenges in his first season at Liverpool, with injuries having limited him to only 13 starts in all competitions for his new club following his British record £125m arrival from Newcastle in September.
"I think it's probably fair to say it hasn't gone as well as he would have liked, or anybody would have liked, but sometimes these things happen," says Potter.
"We sometimes make the assumption that when you sign a player, automatically it's going to improve everything. I've lived that it's not always the case. You have to settle in, you have to find a way of learning about each other, and how they're going to play and fit in.
"Okay, Isak playing for Newcastle does this, but how does he adapt to what Liverpool wants him to do? The player doesn't change. His quality doesn't change. He's still a top, top, top player. It's just how they interact as a team together.
"If you make a lot of changes, it can take a bit of time. Unfortunately, sometimes, at the big clubs, the big change means big pressure and expectation, and then expectation versus reality. As soon as that gap starts to become too big, you can have problems.
"His injuries have been disappointing for him, but I know him. He's a great lad who wants to play football and help his team. Sometimes everybody's career can go up and down, but the quality of the person and the player is undeniable from our perspective."
How does Potter intend to use Isak and Gyokeres together? Injuries mean he has only once had the chance to name them in the same starting line-up once but he is confident of making it work.
"I think they're different in their styles, which I think is good for us because then you can hopefully use them in a good way," he says.
"If you think of how Viktor played in Portugal, a lot on the last line, a lot of threatening the big spaces. He's incredible attacking big spaces. So, probably more of that focus.
"Alex is able to drift wider. If we look at his time at Newcastle, he played a little bit wider and also played as a No 10.
"The job is how we can use their attributes and qualities in the best way for us. Because if we can get them enjoying their football and if we can get them firing, they are top players."
Pragmatism over philosophy
Potter has done his best work as a 'project manager' at Brighton and Ostersunds but he is fully aware of the need for pragmatism at international level given the limited time spent with the players.
"I think the mistake would be to say, 'I want to play this way because this is my playing style and this is what I want to do.' Yes, but I've got two days to implement it, so what are the chances of that?
"So, it doesn't become about me, it becomes about how we can most effectively help the players get on the pitch and give themselves the best chance to win."
Meanwhile, he bats away references to previous links with the England job and instead reiterates that the highs and lows of his career have made him stronger.
"In football, as soon as you start thinking too far ahead, this can happen, that can happen. It's a mistake.
"You just go back to that word, to be grateful for everything that's happened to you, to accept all the things that happened, take them positively, and hopefully enjoy every minute of going to the World Cup. That's all I'm focused on."
After Stockholm, it is a chance to create more memories to savour.
gudiest01
1
same Sweden that Norway just destroyed?