How the paths of Garry Monk and Graham Potter crossed several times ahead of the FA Cup tie between Brighton and Sheffield Wednesday

The pair, both regarded among the brightest young managers in English football, were team mates for a short spell at Southampton before the studious Potter took the opportunity to observe training sessions during the latter’s time as a player at Swansea City.

The Brighton boss started in slightly less conventional circumstances than Monk by taking Swedish fourth-tier outfit Östersund to the knockout stages of the Europa League, having been recommended for the job by former Stoke manager Graeme Jones, a former assistant manager in south Wales.

His next job was at Swansea before taking over at Brighton in the summer.

“I know Graham,” Monk smiled.

“When I was younger at Southampton as a player, he came to Southampton for only a short stint, six months or so.

“I was only a youth player at that time and he was in the first team, so that was a little passage in our careers.

“He was very good friends with Graeme Jones when Graeme was assistant at Swansea [beside Roberto Martinez], so he would often come and visit and we’d see him there coming into certain training sessions to watch and observe.

“I spoke to him just before he took the Swansea job and obviously when we played Swansea as well.

“He’s a good guy.”

And asked what it is in a person that gives them the desire for a career in management, a relaxed Monk joked: “We’re idiots!

“Everyone’s got a different path.

“I can only speak for myself in that it’s been a passion from a young age, it’s all I’ve ever known from being a kid and you either want to do it or you don’t want to do it.

“That’s what makes it so fascinating when you speak to different managers and coaches and from all different backgrounds about how they got into the job.

“That’s always interesting when you speak to them after the game.”