It’s been a terrible start to the 2024/25 Premier League season for Julen Lopetegui at West Ham, but one man that apparently won’t be replacing him at the London Stadium is Graham Potter.
The former Chelsea manager has been out of work since being sacked by the Blues, and even if the Spaniard does get the bullet from the Hammers because of their poor form, Give Me Sport sources indicate that Potter won’t be the man to replace him.
Lopetegui appeared more than happy to be going home to Spain during the international break, and it’s clear that he still feels the head coach’s job is his because he’s continuing to demand signings for the East Londoners.
The issue for David Sullivan is whether to stick or twist.
If he decides to give Lopetegui more time to turn things around, he runs the risk of the Hammers slipping further away from where they want to be.
Equally, if Sullivan doesn’t believe that there’s a standout candidate available to take over from the Spaniard, there’s no point in him making a change for the sake of it.
Unfortunately for the chairman, not bagging either Hansi Flick or Ruben Amorim when he apparently had the chance to do so is looking more and more short-sighted.
The former has Barca playing back to somewhere near their best, whilst the latter is about to embark on his own Premier League journey at Man United.
It’s as if Sullivan is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t, though supporters will surely just want to see a return to the ‘West Ham way’ of playing football.
They didn’t get it with David Moyes, and thoughts that Lopetegui would be the man to bring that continental style back to East London have quickly been revised.
