The start was pretty memorable, a win and a clean sheet in an away Champions League tie for Liverpool, one of those debuts that many dream of but few achieve. The end, though, was sadly forgettable.
“They had an FA Cup game which I wanted to take part in. I played in that but in all honesty I shouldn’t have played. I let myself down, I’d not played for 10 months and not trained for eight months, I knew part-time football wasn’t for me so it was time to go.”
Six months into retirement, he has time to reflect, while also trying to find a path in the coaching world. He’s doing some work on a part-time basis with Port Vale’s U-11s but is keen to work, though Covid restrictions make that job search a lot more difficult.
Proud of his long career at club level – he played for 15 years between his debut for Liverpool (where he made 15 first-team appearances) and his professional finale at Tranmere – and also with the national team (five caps between 2007-2008), Potter feels he can contribute as a coach.
Of course there are questions. Should he have done better at Liverpool, where he did make the first team but played just twice in the Premier League?
Could he have made more of his Ireland career, where he made just one competitive appearance, in a dead-rubber Euro qualifier?
“Like anyone, I feel I could have done more, but I don’t look back with too many regrets,” Potter says.
“I played for some very good clubs: Liverpool, Southampton, Wolves, Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham, Tranmere, really good clubs, so I can only be proud of what I’d achieved.
“If I’d known when I signed a pro contract for Liverpool at 17 that I’d play 500 games in a professional career, I’d have taken that. Not everyone gets a long career and I was lucky. I had one major injury, I ruptured my achilles at 33.
“I have no regrets. Yes, I’d have loved more appearances for Liverpool, more caps for Ireland but you are where you are, at the club you’re at for a reason. I feel grateful for the opportunities I had.”
In 2004, it seemed like the world was opening up before Potter when, as a 19-year-old, he was pitched into the Liverpool first team by Rafa Benitez as he played in both legs of a meeting with Austrian side Graz in the Champions League qualifiers.
“It was amazing,” he says of his debut, a sub for Steve Finnan in a 1-0 win in the away leg.
“Looking back I get more a sense of what an achievement that it was at the time. At the time you are on the crest of a wave – not that the debut meant nothing to me but I didn’t see it in the same light then as I do now, what an achievement it was to get into the Liverpool first team and to come on for Steve Finnan, someone I would go on to play with for Ireland and roomed with at Liverpool, that was extra special.”
That season, 2004-’05, was of course a memorable one for Liverpool, who played 61 games that term in all competitions and finished as champions of Europe.
Potter played 10 times that season, three times in the Champions League and twice in the Premier League, though he was on the very far fringes when the team beat AC Milan on penalties in Istanbul.
“It was a big season for me. Leading into it I had no feeling I’d be involved that many times, there were a lot of cup games and sub appearances in the Premier League but it was still massive for me to play in that team. and it was good that Rafa had that faith in me,” he says.
The following season brought more opportunities in the red shirt. Despite their status as European champions, Liverpool had to qualify for the next term’s tournament the hard way, through the preliminary rounds, though that opened a door for Potter, who started in games against Welsh side TNS, Lithuanian outfit Kaunas and CSKA Sofia.
In a group game at home to Real Betis, in November 2005, he came off the bench for the final minute, replacing Steven Gerrard. He was still only 20 but Potter had played his last game for Liverpool FC.
“You don’t know at the time that it’s over and it’s odd now to look back and to see that was my last game,” he recalls. “I was unaware of that and I was hoping to impress the right people in the right places to get back into the Liverpool squad.”
Being loaned out to Southampton was a sign that he was not what Benitez wanted in a first-team player.
“For me, at the time, it was an opportunity to go and play regular football. It was always going to be a task to be a mainstay in that Liverpool side, with the players they had, especially in midfield but (it was great) for me to go out on loan and sample what it was like, to play Saturday/Tuesday every week in a competitive league,” he says.
“Southampton had just been relegated from the Premier League so they were keen to get back. I saw it as a chance to go out and do well on loan, maybe come back to Liverpool and see if I could force my way back in.
“You have to be realistic about it and if I was good enough, I’d have been there longer. The times I did play for the Liverpool first team, more often than not I was on the right wing, but I wanted to be in central midfield and that was a hard place to get into. There’s no shame in me saying I wasn’t good enough,” he says now.
Spells followed at Wolves (2007-2009), Sheffield Wednesday (2009-2011), MK Dons (2011-2017), Rotherham United (2017-2019) and Tranmere Rovers (2019-2020). That stint with Altrincham last year barely counts.
His club career had longevity but Ireland-wise, it was brief, five caps between a debut against Ecuador (2007) and a sub appearance in a Croke Park friendly against Brazil, as Steve Staunton’s exit did not work out for him.
“I played in all the age groups from U-16 up but it was fleeting for me when I did get to the seniors. The fact that Stan went so quickly didn’t help me,” says Potter.
“I’d had a few conversations with him when he was Ireland manager and he had plans for me going forward. I was excited about how that could pan out, for me and for Ireland, but results dictate and – unfortunately for me – Steve didn’t last too long in the job, and there was a change, Trapattoni came in.
“I did go to Portugal for Trap’s first training camp and scored in one of the games over there, a friendly against a club side, but I came off at half-time in the game as I had a knock on my ankle, and that was pretty much it with Ireland for me.
“I never got a call again and that was disappointing as I felt like I was just getting started with international football but that’s the way it was.”
Potter’s career saw one intriguing chapter when, at Tranmere, he played against Liverpool for the one and only time, in a pre-season friendly and he still retains that fondness for the place.
“The time I was there we had some world-class players in the squad. We did come close a few times but just couldn’t win a league,” he says.
“It’s strange for a club of that stature to go so long without the league title, it’s been a great few years since Jurgen Klopp has come in and taken Liverpool to a new level, what he’s done for the club has been immense.”
