Nike Strike Aerowsculpt Official Premier League match ball. (Photo by Lewis Storey/Getty Images)Nike Strike Aerowsculpt Official Premier League match ball. (Photo by Lewis Storey/Getty Images)
Nike Strike Aerowsculpt Official Premier League match ball. (Photo by Lewis Storey/Getty Images)

Brighton transfer rumours: Albion battle Everton and Southampton for striker, Juve make move for Man United outcast

Brighton manager Graham Potter has insisted that he is solely focused on the here and now after being asked whether he would ever consider taking on the role of England manager in the future.

Albion have made a superb start to the season, and are just two points off the top of the table.

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 last 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”, he said: “Buzzing, it’s a good word.

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

"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.”