By all accounts West Ham are a bit of a mess behind the scenes under Julen Lopetegui and it’s telling when players speak out.
David Moyes may not have been perfect by any stretch of the imagination.
But he ran a very tight ship in that West Ham dressing room.
Under Julen Lopetegui it’s like a shipwreck.
Things will have gone on under Moyes, no doubt about that.
But you rarely heard anything about them as team spirit became central to everything good about West Ham under the Scot.
Forget tactics and team selections, Lopetegui’s single biggest issue since arriving at the London Stadium is his failure to foster anything like that kind of camaraderie or command that level of respect.
It’s been there to see from the very beginning.
After starting him on the bench for the opening game against Aston Villa, new signing Niclas Fullkrug publicly hit out at Lopetegui.
Tales of bust-ups and unrest dog West Ham under Lopetegui
Pulling no punches, Fullkrug warned Lopetegui he hadn’t signed for West Ham to be a back-up.
It has been story after story of dressing room unrest, bust-ups, public displays of dissent and even punch-ups since.
The latest being Mohammed Kudus ranting at Lopetegui after being subbed in West Ham’s fortunate 2-1 win over Wolves which kept the Spaniard in a job.
That in itself came hot on the heels of leaks of a physical altercation between Jean-Clair Todibo and the manager.
To his credit Lopetegui has since confirmed there was an incident but described it as ‘nothing important’.
Important enough to make Todibo train with the Under 21s and leave him out of the team, though.
It all comes after a brutally honest Fullkrug spoke out again to state there is a lack of leadership and hierarchy in the dressing room.
Worse still the big German even suggested players are not pulling their weight in training.
West Ham star criticises mentality under Lopetegui
None of the above would have happened under Moyes.
The Scot’s high standards in terms of professionalism, attitude, approach and workrate were the things that made the Hammers so competitive for much of his time here.
It’s no coincidence that West Ham’s decline at the start of 2024 came after the dressing room were made aware Moyes would be leaving the club.
Standards started to slip and they’ve never recovered.
Now another West Ham star has criticised the team’s mentality under Lopetegui but his best mate is the worst one.
Emerson Palmieri spoke to Italian journalist Gianluca di Marzio this week about the situation at West Ham.
The left-back, who himself was dropped for the damaging defeat to Leicester last week, questioned the attitude of the team since Lopetegui’s arrival.
“I don’t know, we work every day like all the teams to avoid conceding goals,” Emerson said.
“But sometimes we lack a bit of mentality, we have to start the game strong straight away.”
That’s the latest damning indictment of what many Hammers fans feel is a failed experiment under the former Spain boss.
Bad mentality? Emerson’s best mate Paqueta is the worst one
The problem is Emerson’s closest friend in the team, Lucas Paqueta, is the biggest culprit.
The Brazilian has had two decent games in almost an entire calendar year.
The case against him has been hanging over the entire club for more than 18 months.
We will soon find out whether that’s been self inflicted.
All the while Paqueta, West Ham’s best paid player of all time, has been picking up his £150k per week and doing very little to justify it.
In fact his lackadaisical attitude and approach is not only costly on the pitch, it’s setting an awful example off it.
Paqueta has cost West Ham a staggering £67.8m since arriving at the club.
He has 15 goals and 14 assists to show for it.
As the top earner he should be the one setting the example for the entire team.
Highest paid player should be the one all others look to
The one West Ham look to for inspiration and leadership.
Instead he’s been so poor he can’t even get into a side that’s won just five league games all season.
His latest performances as substitute have been so unbearably half-hearted, it has provoked angry reactions from West Ham fans.
With seconds left against Wolves Paqueta tried a ridiculous half-volley from 35 yards out instead of keeping the ball and seeing out a crucial win.
His teammates were incredulous. And as he sauntered back Wolves had a chance to score at the other end.
Lukasz Fabianski gave Paqueta both barrels, screaming at him, pointing to his head and calling him ‘stupid’. Safe to say he was speaking for every single West Ham fan.
Emerson should be telling Paqueta before anyone else to sort his attitude and mentality out.
Look at Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen. Now they’re leaders.
Men you’d want to be in the trenches with, who put the team above themselves.
We’ll find out in March if Paqueta has betrayed that fundamental rule of being a good teammate.
In the meantime he needs to play like he owes West Ham something, regardless of what he thinks of Lopetegui.
Which isn’t much according to the observations of Jeff Stelling this week.
Because the childish, petulant Brazilian does owe this club.
Big time.
Receive a digest of our best West Ham content each week direct to your mailbox
