There is a slight pause while Steve Potts rolls back the clock on a lengthy career.
A quick flick through 288 appearances for West Ham United, as the current U21s assistant manager recalls just one. Not in east London this time, but instead Down Under. The last time the Club played in Perth, in fact.
Then, back in 1995, Potts, a battling defender, was part of a four-game tour across Australia. A match came in Perth too, the city the Hammers are based in for a tour ahead of the 2023/24 season.
"If we going to talk about Australia, I’m not sure I remember too much,” he laughs. “You’ll probably be able to tell me more!
“The journey was so long to get out there. We did Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. It was a lot of flying and moving on to the next games.”
Almost three decades on, Potts' recollection of the 1995 tour is hazy, but the country certainly left an impression, that is for sure. He describes the experience of travelling to the other side of the world as a privilege. “It will be a great experience for the boys that have travelled this season,” he adds. “Football takes you places and gives you the chance to do these sorts of things!”
For Potts, and the rest of the Hammers ahead of the 1995/96 season, that was the case. The trip, arranged as part of the Club’s 100th-year celebrations, saw the Hammers travel the breadth of the country, taking on Western Australia in Perth, Victoria in Melbourne, and Australia’s Olympic U23 squad in Sydney and Brisbane.
In Perth, the Hammers took on a Western Australia select XI. They battled to a competitive 2-2 draw.
Nearly 30 years on from Potts own venture Down Under, seven Academy players - goalkeeper Jacob Knightbridge, defenders Levi Laing and Luizão, midfielders Dan Chesters, Freddie Potts and George Earthy, and forwards Kamarai Swyer and Divin Mubama – are making the trip.
Fixtures against Perth Glory on Saturday 15 July - a match you can watch on the West Ham App for free - and against Tottenham Hotspur three days later should give chances for the next crop of talent from the Academy of Football to stake their claim for first-team action. Potts hopes so too.
“The travel is demanding,” he explains, “but they’ve got to put that to the back of their mind. They will want to prove themselves because you don’t get too many chances. It is a great experience to be around first-team players and to play in front of a crowd should they get some minutes.”
