We talk about it being a results business and you have to acknowledge that and it is.
But i think if you have to grow anything and develop anything you have to see that there's a
process there's a performance element that has to continue to improve
because that's ultimately how i think you can get long-term results and sustainable
long-term results that are maybe better than what you think you can get.
people have always talked Graham about your style of play we heard Pep Guardiola a couple
of weeks ago talking about you as the best english coach out there i'm not sure he'd say
that anymore after your little tangle the other night but you get the point yes i get the point
um well the thing about style of play is no one's style is any better any worse than anybody else's
you know that's the beauty of football i always say that and um everyone's got a right to play
how they want to play and i've worked 15 years pretty much to to to play the way that i think
um i want to play and then it's about um making that work like i said it it fitted
with what swansea wanted swansea wanted that that style um as did us to sund so it's not like i
took over a different style of team that had been really successful and changed it with
my style that made it worse it was it was part of the remits in terms of stylistically we had a fit
but then you have to be humble enough to know and to say that styles don't win your games you've got
to make them work and you've got to get people to believe in it you've got to explain why it works
or how it works and how they fit into it that's the that's the challenge i guess different then
i mean you you didn't realize when you went into swansea i'm guessing that it was just going to be
a one-year project in effect but but brighton came calling and and this was a very different
situation because you're going to into a club which already has a lot of structures in place
so how different was that as a challenge well it was part of the attraction uh i would say because
you know in swansea there was a lot of instability above me and and it was particularly challenging
so i i just felt that um really i was impressed with tony bloom as a chairman um a local guy but
but a very intelligent man that looked at football very objectively so um i felt that that you've
got the chance to work as a coach you know as we know it results can go up and down and when you're
brightening the premier league with the greatest respect you you know you're going to lose more
than you win so you have to stay on a path you have to be calm you have to understand the process
and i felt that they would give us that opportunity which which has proven proven right um
but it was um but it was still a challenge because you're trying to change a playing style
in the most competitive league in the world and um and that isn't so easy we look on the
outside and look at results week by week um runs of form ultimate end of the season league table
do you and and the people working with you at brighton judge progress in in a different way
um i wouldn't say a different way i think you've got to look at look at those of course because we
know that that's that's the final bit that's the most important bit but i think sometimes
in football you can get results by not doing too much and sometimes you can get results
um that are negative when you deserve a little bit more and i think that's the beauty of the game
we um we talk about it as being a results business and you have to acknowledge that and it is but i
think if you have to uh grow anything and develop anything you have to see that there's a process
there's a performance element that has to continue to improve because that's ultimately how i think
you can get long-term results and sustainable long-term results that are maybe better than
what you think you can get well on this point graeme we had um dan ashworth your technical
director on the coach's voice recently and he said this we need graham to be bold with giving young
players a chance to thrive and space and time to survive we are very fortunate that he does that
how central is this this uh element of it that the blooding young players developing young players
to your belief in building that long-term and sustainable success at a football club that we've
talked about i think it's very important and it's also important to us as a club
you know some part of what tony um mentioned to me in terms of at the start of the project it's like
we invest a lot in our academy we want to try and provide a pathway for that and um i suppose
from a cultural perspective it's nice to have players that have understand the local community
that understand the club that are desperate to do well for the club that have sent some
sort of connection emotionally with it i think that's that's got to be got to be beneficial
you know young players are often very coachable at the same time they're also
a bit vulnerable to to the to the the suffering that can happen in the premier league in terms of
results and defeats so it's it's a bit of a
again it's a bit of an up and down journey but incredibly rewarding and i think
the easier bit is to take the 28 year old proven premier league player but there's a cost to that
and if we want to try and be that five percent that that that breaks the system in terms of
finances then how we can do that is by by playing bob sanchez by giving him the opportunity to play
by hopefully then watching him develop so he can play for spain or you know anything like that and
that's that's so there's there's quite a few levels to it i think and ultimately we believe
that there's a chance that if we do it right that that's how we can grow as a club very interesting
that you talk about the players and the emotions that they experience graham and i'm guessing the
fans are quite similar in that sense so they're they're going like this through brighton's season
but and i observe you very closely that's of course a part of my job and i see you
pre-match post-match during games generally pretty much like that calm through the middle
how do you manage to most of the time how do you manage to do that because i think that's a real
rare quality in football especially at the highest level well i suppose practice i've been doing
this job for 15 years now so i've i've had the experience of sometimes overstepping and sometimes
you know that type of stuff so so i understand myself a bit better so i know that to avoid
certain situations to try to stay to stay calm because yeah we know football's emotional game and
you respond and it's a roller coaster and i'm not sure that is that helpful to me as a person
to be on that at the same time i'm internally i'm dealing with all the emotion i'm just like
everybody else when we lose it's it's it's painful it's it's horrible and when we win it's fantastic
but to try to be helpful to the group and to be consistent i think you need to be that
so that the players don't get on the rock and roll journey of wins and losses it's about
consistently trying to improve every day regardless of the results
try to improve through every day obviously it helps i think if i'm at least acting in that way
i want to pick up just one or two more points greg before we take some questions from our viewers
today you've mentioned relationships with players a couple of times i just wonder if you feel
that that element has changed since your own playing days or whether the relationship between
the the head coach and and the players now is is different to to as it was then
i'm i'm not sure um i wouldn't like to generalize i mean uh i had experienced experience in sweden
which is a far more i would say flatter in terms of organization around leadership
so as the coach in england i suppose there's a hierarchy you know the coach of the gaffer and
then there's the players whereas i think in sweden it's a lot it's it's you're on the same level so
i've had seven years of that and um and from my perspective i i'm not above the players i'm
there with them and we're a team together and i'm there to help them i understand that i have to
pick the team and have to take responsibility for that and make those choices but but fundamentally
we're all the same and therefore it's about building relationships it's about understanding
each other more and more uh how that i can help them how can i align what they want to
do about their career with what we're trying to do here and um unfortunately or fortunately
that takes time you know that's that's a coaching process that that takes time and but if you give
it that time i think i think relationships get get better and stronger and you understand each other
more and they become richer and hopefully then you can get more out of people because they trust and
believe and buy into what you're doing so we are two days away from the end of what's been a long
season and you know you made the point it's been a season a half really without too much of a break
so what does the offseason look like for you now is there a chance to completely escape and unwind
and is that an important element or do you want to continue learning improving and finding ways
to get better or is there room for both i think there is but i think you need to as i've got older
i realize that football is a it's an intensity sport so you have to take your time to recover
you have to take your time to rest you have to take time to look after yourself because
in the last three years i've moved from sweden to to wales to then to brighton
i've lost both my parents dealing with a global pandemic two premier league seasons
football losses wins roller coaster so in the end as a human being you know you you're um you have
to recognize that there's a time where you need to recharge because otherwise it's impossible
so i think i need a i need a couple of weeks for that definitely the problem
is i've got um twins that are five years old so that's not so so simple so i'll have to um
yeah i'll have to be creative with that but definitely i need some time with them and
some family and and then i think as you as you start that recovery process you start to then
thinking and thinking in a good way in a in a better way in a clearer way outside of the
the fighting of points and the hassle of doing press conferences and all this sort of stuff you
you know you're in a bit more of a human space where you can then analyze everything clearer and
i think that's more beneficial so understanding when to take a break i think is really important
you