The nice young English couple were evidently not tourists so what on earth had brought them to Sweden’s Vinterstaden – the Winter City? Were they properly equipped for life in the frozen north? Could they comprehend the challenge confronting them?

Solicitous locals had plenty of questions and were not exactly reassured by the answers. “When we arrived people were really friendly,” recalls Graham Potter. “I’d be out with my wife and they’d ask why we were here. When I told them, they’d immediately look concerned or puzzled and tell us it was ‘useless’, ‘impossible’, or: ‘You’re crazy.’”

The overwhelming consensus was that he had signed up for a hopeless cause but – five years and three promotions on – Potter has led Ostersund all the way from the fourth tier of Swedish football to a debut season in the top flight, the Allsvenskan. “Fortunately I was sufficiently naive and optimistic not to believe what I was hearing,” says the former journeyman full-back. “I always felt something special could happen.”

On Monday evening such faith will be fully vindicated as the team from a small, hitherto nordic-sports fixated town – population 45,000, a six-hour drive north of Stockholm – visit Hammarby in their opening fixture of Sweden’s new domestic season.

“At first we had crowds of about 500,” says Potter, whose team were attracting 6,500 sellouts by the end of last season and have now moved into a new 10,000-capacity stadium. “There was no football culture here before, it’s the Winter City and has always produced skiers but now young boys and girls are joining football schools and you see kids running around in our tops. I’ve got a six-year-old son and it’s great to see his friends wearing them.”

Potter also has nine-month-old twin boys who one day will doubtless hear all about the significance of Monday’s kick-off. A historic moment for Ostersund, it will also be a particularly proud one for the 40-year-old from Solihull, whose playing career took in principally Birmingham, Stoke, West Brom, York and Macclesfield, with eight games in the Premier League for Southampton.

Increasingly bored by much of the formulaic coaching and “cultural norms” which defined his life as a professional, Potter completed an Open University degree in social sciences while still playing. It led to football development posts, first at Hull University – from where he secured a secondment as technical director of the Ghana women’s team at the 2007 World Cup in China – and then Leeds Metropolitan University. In Leeds he completed an MA in leadership and emotional intelligence – a qualification that has served him well in a most unusual managerial posting.

“Without those experiences in higher education I wouldn’t have been able to do this job,” says Potter. “It taught me a more holistic approach and prepared me for the experience of working abroad, where your cultural beliefs are challenged and, sometimes, turned on their head.”

Then there’s the weather. Pre-season training in Ostersund starts in January and Potter swiftly learnt that while the influence of the Gulf Stream may mitigate the harshness of such a high latitude climate, the arctic Kallvastan winds whipping off the giant lake, Storsjon, remain exceptionally cutting. “When it gets down to minus 25C it’s: ‘Wow.’ You do notice it,” he says. “But a lot of the time it’s a different, nicer, drier cold than in England.”

Even so, the conditions represent a considerable challenge for Potter’s eclectic squad that has variously featured players from Ghana, Nigeria, Comoros, South Korea, Mexico, the United States, Bosnia, Spain and England. “I had two boys arriving from Ghana,” he says. “When they boarded the plane in Accra it was thirtysomething degrees C, when they arrived here it was minus 30C.”

The latest intake includes Jamal Blackman, a talented young goalkeeper who arrives on loan from Chelsea, and joins his compatriot Jamie Hopcutt, a former York trainee whose creativity and goals have helped propel Ostersund up the divisions.

There had been a plan that the club would house several young north African footballers, with the Libyan government at one point pledging to inject £47m into an outpost they intended to turn into a satellite academy. Potter was not exactly surprised when, following Libya’s descent into anarchy, the cash from Tripoli never materialised. “What you’ve never had, you never miss,” he says.

Without it, he has created a fascinating cultural scene which not only ensured Ostersund became very much part of the local community but helped players avoid succumbing to boredom and isolation.

So far Potter’s squad have collaborated in writing a book, staging an art exhibition, acting in plays and dancing – in, possibly, his most ambitious project to date, they staged a version of Swan Lake.

“I’m not sure how some of our ideas would go down in England,” he says. “But we try to develop individuals as open-minded humans rather than just footballers. Educating players and being part of the community are very important. I want to take people out of their comfort zones and teach them to rely on their team-mates.”

With Sweden’s immigration policy and the refugee crisis hot topics in Ostersund – where a recent spate of attacks on the town’s women has been blamed by some on foreigners – the club helps build bridges by involving refugees in community activities.

Out on the pitch, Potter’s determination to think laterally means his team switch seamlessly between 3-5-2 – a rare formation in a country where 4-4-2 still reigns – and playing with a back four. So far it has proved a winning formula but this rare successful English manager abroad acknowledges the season ahead represents a huge advance.

“Our flexibility and adaptability with the back three has probably been the key to our success,” he says. “We’ve got to keep translating positive, attacking football into results. It’s going to be difficult but this is an historic period for the club – it’s nice to be part of it.”