'There’s always a kick in the backside waiting for you' - Graham Potter responds to question on England manager job

Albion have made a superb start to the season, and could move to the top of the Premier League with a win against Arsenal on Saturday evening – depending on results elsewhere earlier in the day.

For Potter, that would a considerable personal achievement for a manager who himself has endured a meteoric rise through the footballing pyramid in recent years.

During an appearance on Sky Sports’ Soccer AM this weekend, the Seagulls boss was asked whether he believed his burgeoning reputation could one day put him in the running for the England job, but the 46-year-old was quick to deliver a typically level-headed answer.

He said: “It’s not something I think about.

"Whatever happens in the future, it is what it is. If you’d have asked me ten years ago if in the future I’d have been in the Premier League I’d laughed at you. It wasn’t something I thought about.

"As soon as you start thinking too far ahead in football, there’s always a kick in the backside waiting for you.

"Just focus on the next game, focus on today, focus on what you’ve got to do and do the best job you can – that’s life.”

Potter did, however, conceded that his side’s start to the campaign had left him delighted – although he was also eager to emphasise just how they still have to go this term.

When asked whether he was “buzzing” with a points tally of 13 points from six games, he said: “Buzzing, it’s a good word.

"It’s a start for us, that’s all it is.

"It’s six games, but you can’t complain with the points we’ve got.

"Performances, we can still do better, we can still improve, but if you’d said to me at the start of the season that this is the points tally we’ve got after quite a disrupted preseason, then yeah, we’d have been happy with that.

"There’s a long way to go.”