He was asked about a comparison between this season and last when he spoke to the media ahead of tonight’s game against AFC Bournemouth, and the head coach admitted he understands people’s perception of how Albion might fare in the head coach’s first season in the Premier League.
He said, “I’m sure if you asked some people to predict where we’d be at this stage of the season then it would be a lot worse.
“Nobody can predict the future, and it’s not in my interests to worry too much about what might happen.
“People might think ‘here’s some numpty from the Championship who finished tenth last season, be careful what you wish for’ - that sort of narrative. I can of course understand that because you’re replacing a really respected guy in Chris Hughton who did a fantastic job to keep this club in the Premier League for two years, I’ve always said that.
“Sometimes you make changes and it doesn’t go so well, so you can understand why there was that sort of comment.
“I can’t listen to that, I’d go insane, wouldn’t I? Imagine listening to every opinion out there, whether that’s good or bad. You have to accept it’s the Premier League – there’s media coverage, opinion, the fans – all of that sort of stuff, we can’t control that and complain about it.
“This league is shown all over the world and there’s rightly great interest in a fantastic competition.
“Someone always has to lose, and the culture is if you lose you are a failure and if you win you’re a success, I won’t change that. We have to focus on ourselves and what we can control, how we do and how we can play.”
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Albion head the Vitality Stadium this evening looking to complete their first double of the season following last month’s 2-0 success at the Amex.
“It’s another game, no different to the Villa one or the game after Bournemouth,” added Potter. “They had some tough times, especially with injuries, and this is an unforgiving league but we expect a tough 90 minutes.”