It is too late to save West Ham’s abysmal season now but Graham Potter can still save the club’s soul – he just has to listen to Gary Neville.
West Ham have enjoyed some of the best years of their modern history in recent times.
Under David Moyes the Hammers set their record Premier League points total.
They also qualified for Europe three seasons in a row for the first time in West Ham’s 130-year history.
When on the continent, West Ham made it count too.
The Hammers won their first major trophy of the last 45 years by lifting the Europa Conference League sandwiched by memorable runs to the semi-finals and quarter-finals of the Europa League.
For a two-year spell under Moyes, West Ham were electric to watch.
The Hammers were defensively resilient but also thrilling and deadly on the counter attack.
In a league full of poor imitation Pep Guardiola copycats, West Ham were something of a throwback.
It used to be said of West Ham that they were everyone’s second team.
What happened to everyone’s second favourite team West Ham?
That was a nod to the fact the Hammers always set out to entertain and had a long line of mercurial, maverick talents from Paolo Di Canio and Joe Cole through to Dimitri Payet and Marko Arnautovic.
Something has been lost in the last two or three seasons, though.
And you only have to visit the London Stadium on a matchday to witness the shocking malaise first hand.
West Ham’s rented home ground is like a morgue nowadays and it’s because the football is dead.
Mohammed Kudus looked to be the latest in West Ham’s roll call of magical talents the way he played in his debut season.
But instead of being freed up to terrorise the opposition, Kudus continues to be assigned a rudimentary role making him so much easier to mark and contain.
Lucas Paqueta is another player with a God-given talent in his feet. But he spends more time defending than he does on the edge of the opposition’s box where he should be.
The duo – like so many other top talents across the Premier League – are having their wings clipped and fans their senses dulled by managers like Graham Potter promoting functionality and defined roles over attacking excitement and individualism.
West Ham have been a hard watch for far too long.
Now Potter must heed Gary Neville’s warning if he is to save West Ham’s soul.
Harry Redknapp, Alan Pardew, Sam Allardyce, Slaven Bilic and Moyes have all managed to find that West Ham sweet spot during their various tenures over the last 30 years.
It wasn’t always pretty under every single one.
But there was plenty of excitement, and what can be defined as success, during their spells with the club.
West Ham have scored just one goal per game under Potter so far.
Fans have jeered his team off on several occasions and some Hammers have already given Potter an unflattering nickname.
When Potter took over from the hapless Julen Lopetegui, West Ham supporters hoped and expected a more modern, exciting style and approach.
Especially given Potter essentially had a free hit for the rest of the season with the Hammers in no danger of going down and with nothing to lose.
The disappointment at the way West Ham have played under the Englishman is the reason many have voiced concerns about whether Potter is the right man for the club long-term.
Potter must heed Neville’s warning to save West Ham’s soul
This is not an isolated problem by any means, it is an “illness” slowly but surely killing the Premier League according to Neville.
The Sky Sports pundit is not everyone’s cup of tea.
But Neville delivered a passionate speech about the state of the Premier League and lack of excitement for fans which struck a chord with Hammers everywhere.
For that reason Potter must listen to every single word of it and change his approach if he is to save this club’s soul – part of which was undeniably left behind at their beloved Boleyn Ground.
Neville says modern day players and teams are now ‘micro-managed to within an inch of their lives’.
And he says Premier League football has become boring to watch, monotonous and lacking in any excitement or indiviuality.
His rant on the limited freedom players experience due to rigid systems in the modern game chimes with West Ham fans.
Neville’s wise words strike a chord with Hammers
Neville wants players to be given more creative freedom on the field, like the old days.
“I apologise for my co-commentary. I think I let it (the boring nature of the Manchester derby) get to me,” Neville said on Sky Sports, which you can watch in full below.
“I think l was boring on there as well.
“This robotic nature of not leaving our positions, of being micromanaged within an inch of our lives, of not having any freedom to take a risk to go and try and win a football match, it’s becoming an illness in the game, it’s becoming a disease in the game.
“Pep Guardiola and his teams over the last 10 years, that’s what his teams do. But we’re seeing poor imitations of that across the board now.
“The game today really was quite depressing for me, because I think we’ve seen a lot of these types of games.
“And the Premier League is about excitement, it’s about thrill, it’s about risk. And there was nothing like that in that game, so that’s not good enough.”
Potter must put the fun back into watching West Ham
Where has the fun gone in football?
There were times when West Ham would have two or three entries alone on what were always blockbuster goal of the month reels on Match of the Day.
Now it’s hard to remember two or three amazing goals all season long.
Is it any wonder West Ham fans – like those of many rival clubs – are constantly re-posting clips from past seasons and players of yesteryear with a nostalgic tear in their eye?
Neville is spot on in his observations.
Managers like Potter need to show more bravery and get back to being bold and playing two strikers or trying new things.
If not then the already fading interest will drain even more rapidly from the game.
Fans of a certain age will remember growing up glued to Football Italia on Channel 4.
That’s where the excitement was at, where the top stars, goals and skills were on show.
The Premier League took over that mantle for several decades.
But Serie A has been infinitely more exciting than the Premier League in recent seasons.
And if managers in the English top flight continue to obsess over possession for possession’s sake and micro-managing every player’s every movement then the next TV deal is going to be the lowest for decades.
West Ham are at a major crossroads this summer. Neville’s warning is one Potter must heed if they are to take the right path.
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