On Wednesday, a lovely story came out in the Swedish press that Graham Potter, now manager at Brighton & Hove Albion, and some of his coaches had donated a ‘considerable’ sum to help out Östersunds.
The club, where he had been in charge for eight years before returning to England to manage Swansea, was said to be in a ‘deep economic crisis’, needing short-term and long-term investments to keep going.
With the news now in the open, there was no point in hiding it any longer, and when contacted by Östersunds-Posten, relayed by Aftonbladet, Potter revealed why he and his coaches decided to dig in their pockets.
He said: “We heard about the problems the club has. We talked about it in the group and the first reaction was that you get sad, a little disappointed, frustrated and angry that it’s in this situation since we left. At the same time, the club means a lot to us.
“Some of the memories from there will live with us for the rest of our lives. It was our home for several years and we love the city. So despite being disappointed, in the end, we want to help them out of the problems.”
A kind gesture, with SVT in Sweden claiming Östersunds told them it was a ‘six-figure sum’, which means a minimum of 100,000 Swedish Krona (just over £8k).
During his eight years there, Potter took the club from Sweden’s fourth-tier to the top league, finishing fifth in the 2016-17 season.
