Julen Lopetegui was sacked from his post as West Ham United head coach on Wednesday afternoon.
West Ham have brought in Graham Potter to replace Julen Lopetegui, after the Spaniard oversaw real regression at the London Stadium.
The Hammers have been absolutely awful on the whole this season, and it has been claimed that Lopetegui was really confusing his players during training sessions and on match-days.
The fact that more than £100 million was spent in the summer, and West Ham have been worse this season than last term says it all really doesn’t it.
Especially when you consider just how poor we were during the second half of the 2023/24 campaign.
Lopetegui failed in pretty much every single department during his time in charge of West Ham.
He certainly didn’t improve the playing style at West Ham, and the results and defensive performances were equally as bad as last season.
And now the excuses are starting it seems…
Julen Lopetegui camp make claim about West Ham players
Numerous Hammers players clearly didn’t rate the Spaniard one little bit.
His fall-outs with Mohammed Kudus and Jean-Clair Todibo were well-documented, and it has now emerged that Alphonse Areola also didn’t see eye-to-eye with the gaffer.
It’s no surprise really that the Hammers have struggled so badly so far this season – the only shock is that he remained in charge until January.
Now Lopetegui’s camp have had their say on the mess at West Ham.
According to a report from The Athletic, Lopetegui’s camp have questioned the commitment of the players during his time in charge.
That’s a huge concern to me.
We will see tonight during our clash with Aston Villa if the players are more committed with Potter at the helm.
I suspect that they will be, but that’s just not good enough if you ask me.
These boys should be playing for the badge and the fans first and foremost, and then the manager.
If they had downed tools under Lopetegui, did they have no personal pride in their performances?
The players should have had pride in playing for West Ham United football club, not Julen Lopetegui.
The mentality of some of our squad really concerns me. What if they don’t fancy playing for Potter as well? Will they throw him under the bus too?
The culture needs to change drastically at the London Stadium.
And that simply has to start with recruitment. The players we sign in the future must be of sound character.
I think West Ham’s problems run a lot deeper than Julen Lopetegui’s shortcomings unfortunately.
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