‘I’m not the problem at West Ham’ suggests cryptic Graham Potter as pressure mounts

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Graham Potter has well and truly set a cat among the pigeons with some cryptic comments when facing the press ahead of West Ham’s crucial trip to Everton.

Press conferences have become a stale, sterile and tired format which produce banal responses from managers and the vast majority of Graham Potter’s media gatherings at West Ham are no different.

Journalists rarely ask the questions fans want answers to.

But in fairness it can be a difficult balancing act for reporters in terms of juggling maintaining good relations with pushing the envelope.

Although when a manager looks like he is close to the chop, those awkward questions fly a bit more freely as that relationship suddenly doesn’t warrant the same level of protection.

David Moyes was renowned for some dour pressers pre and post West Ham.

Potter comes out fighting over West Ham blame game

But Julen Lopetegui and Potter have somehow made Moyes look like Fred Astaire in terms of entertainment value by comparison.

West Ham fans fully turned on Potter during last week’s home defeat to Palace.

The Englishman is very much on the ropes at the London Stadium and reports state he faces the sack if he loses to Everton while others claim he will be relieved of his duties by the October international break.

As Potter faced the press after a week of intense speculation over his future, becoming a viral meme of ridicule and the backdrop of his boss’s fiancée engaging in a public war of words with fans, things were a little bit different.

Especially as a new power struggle erupts in the boardroom at West Ham.

In truth Potter stuttered and stumbled his way through questions about his future and the pressure he is facing.

Potter has been accused of being devoid of personality and a bit of a robot.

At one point in the presser he took such a long pause to answer a question about whether the West Ham job was proving more difficult than he expected, it looked like he had short-circuited.

Interestingly, though, the Hammers boss did open up and find his words when it came to take responsibility for the mess the club finds itself in.

‘I’m not the problem at West Ham’ – was the cryptic suggestion made by Potter as pressure mounts around the club.

West Ham fans have been protesting against their owners and are vowing to continue until they leave or step aside.

David Sullivan and Karren Brady are the primary targets of supporter activism.

‘I’m not the problem at West Ham’ suggests cryptic Potter

But the entire board received a vote of no confidence from the official West Ham Fan Advisory Board earlier this month.

After defeat to Palace last week, Hammers fans have been making it clear they’ve had enough of Potter and the owners.

The manager has been heavily criticised for his tactics, team selections, substitutions and approach.

Supporters are still waiting to see some sort of identity from the team nine months after Potter was appointed Lopetegui’s successor.

After composing himself following some stuttering over his initial answers, the Hammers boss made it clear that the club risk going around in circles if they make the manager the fall guy yet again, suggesting it is a “narrative”.

He then said there is ‘another way of looking at it’ but would not go into further detail leaving journalists and fans to make the obvious connection that he is pointing towards the way the club has been run.

That connection was made all the more easier when he went on point out he has far from ideal conditions to do his job – listing everything needed to be a successful competitive team and very much suggesting the Hammers don’t have that.

“Always you have to assess, at every point along the way, ‘OK where’s the club at, where are we at?’,” Potter said in his pre-Everton press conference.

“Now if your assessment is that everything is great, culture is great, environment’s great, the team has had lots of investment, it’s all positive, it’s got a young, dynamic group of players with hunger then ok that’s one start point.

“If the start point is slightly different, then clearly the challenge is different.”

As Potter was pressed on reports of other managers being linked with his job, he conceded results haven’t been good enough.

Potter says there’s a different conclusion to West Ham problems

But he went further, suggesting the “narrative” a change of manager will fix things may not be accurate.

“There’s a lot of emotion and there’s a lot of pain, people are hurting and often they want somebody to blame,” Potter added.

“If you think results should be better then the natural conclusion is the coach is the problem.

“And if that’s the case then everybody knows the consequences of that.

“If you look at it slightly differently, and if you make a different assessment of the situation (pauses for deep inhalation of breath) then you can come to a different conclusion.

“But it’s not for me to tell anybody how to think, that’s up to them.”

This sounds very much like ‘sack me at your peril’ to Sullivan and co from Potter.

It feels increasingly that the decisions West Ham make in the next couple of weeks could dictate the direction of the entire club for years to come.