Roy Hodgson sends classy message to Graham Potter ahead of Watford v Brighton clash

The former England and Liverpool boss will sit in the Vicarage Road dugout for the first time on Saturday against the Seagulls.

The 74-year-old, who took over from his predecessor Claudio Ranieri last month, has overseen a 0-0 draw at bottom-of-the-table Burnley and a narrow 1-0 defeat at Champions League-chasing West Ham United.

Watford sit second-from-bottom in the table, but a win over Albion on Saturday could lift them out of the relegation zone.

Ahead of Saturday's meeting at Vicarage Road, Hodgson extolled the virtues of the Albion boss and said Potter and Brighton were a 'marriage made in heaven'.

Speaking to the Hertfordshire Mercury, Hodgson said: "I think [an] enormous amount of credit goes to the manager Graham Potter, I think he's outstandingly good.

"But I think a lot of credit also goes to Dan Ashworth and the owner of the club for identifying Graham Potter too and then identifying the type of football that they would like to play under Graham and obviously the football Graham wants to play, and having so much success with it.

"So it's a marriage made in heaven obviously, might be being broken up now with Dan moving on, but the club has actually established itself in such a way, and I think Graham Potter handles every aspect of the job perfectly.

"He's very, very good with the mass media, the way he speaks. He has great dignity on the touchline. He is one of the guys that you're pleased to speak to before and after the game.

"And he knows how to accept a defeat which of course is one of the hardest things to do when you're a manager because we all want to throw our toys out the pram to some extent when we lose."

Both Hodgson and Potter enjoyed successful managerial spells in Sweden.

Hodgson enjoyed a trophy-laden spell at Malmö FF. The 74-year-old lifted the Allsvenskan five times, and the Svenska Cupen twice, between 1985 and 1989.

Hodgson's greatest European achievement saw the Swedish side knock Inter Milan out of the European Cup at the first round in 1989-90

Potter, meanwhile, forged his managerial name at Östersunds. The Albion manager, who was appointed in 2010, needed just five years to take Östersunds from the fourth tier of Swedish football to the Allsvenskan for the first time in the club's history.

Potter's Östersunds team won the Svenska Cupen in 2017, securing their place in the UEFA Europa League for the first time.

Potter steered Östersunds to the first knockout round of the competition in 2017-18. Östersunds were beaten 4-2 on aggregate by Arsenal but claimed a famous 2-1 victory at the Emirates Stadium.

Hodgson was impressed by Potter's achievements at unfashionable Östersunds, and said he knew Brighton were making an astute appointment when Potter took over in 2019.

Hodgson added: "I left Sweden at the back end of 1989. I don't know quite how old Graham is. He's a young man I think, so I'm pretty certain he wasn't working in Sweden in 1989.

"I first came across him of course when Östersunds did so well in the league. I knew about that because I found the Swedish league and the results.

"And then of course they played Arsenal and I got a chance to see that team, to see what work he'd done, and then the next time and the only time up to then when I chance to meet him was when Crystal Palace played at Swansea.

"I think it was a Carabao Cup game or League Cup game. So I met him them. And, you know, I was impressed by how he got Swansea playing.

"And when Brighton made a move to take him to Brighton, my first thought was, 'I think you've made a very good signing there, you know, because this man looks like he's a very good manager and will become even better with the experience the Premier League will give him'. And in that respect, I guess we've all been proven right."