Graham Potter is feeling the heat at West Ham after a dismal start to his tenure and now a new revelation piles even more pressure on.
It is fair to say things could be going better for Graham Potter at West Ham since his return to football after a 20-month hiatus.
Potter’s appointment enthused many Hammers fans who were desperate to see Julen Lopetegui sacked.
Some questioned the appointment, though, not least because Potter had been out of work for nearly two years after failing at Chelsea.
However, any initial enthusiasm and excitement has completely faded already, as Potter brings up four months in charge next week.
Potter has blamed Lopetegui for leaving West Ham in a defensive mess.
Potter feeling the heat at West Ham four months in
Some fans have also made the argument that Potter cannot be judged until he has his own players and team in place.
That’s despite other managers, most notably Vítor Pereira at Wolves, excelling with a squad that’s not their own.
West Ham have won just three of Potter’s 15 games so far. The team has slipped from 13th, within touching distance of the top half, to 17th.
The 3-2 collapse at Brighton was a new low for the 49-year-old, who angrily snapped in his post-match press conference to show he is already feeling the strain.
The Hammers have a tough end to the season with Spurs, Man United and Forest up next in their last four games.
Unless Potter can get some results on the board, he is on course to end the season with a worse record than Lopetegui.
Originally West Ham majority owner David Sullivan wanted to appoint Potter on an initial six-month deal.
The idea being, as with David Moyes previously, to see how things worked out before making a decision whether to extend the contract.
As things got more desperate under Lopetegui, Sullivan had his hand forced by Everton’s offer of a two-and-a-half year deal to Potter.
Karren Brady was pushing for Potter to get the job and so Sullivan relented to give Potter the same terms – albeit with a break clause after 18 months.
Things have not worked out so far and even if West Ham wanted to hold their hands up over Potter and look elsewhere, PSR may prevent it.
The Hammers insist they are at their limit in terms of PSR.
So they can ill afford to commit more money towards firing and hiring another manager and staff – which is all taken into account as part of PSR.
Two top managers made extraordinary offers to Sullivan
With that as background, two top managers made extraordinary offers to Sullivan that pile pressure on Potter at West Ham.
When a meeting was held to discuss sacking Lopetegui, the West Ham boardroom was split over the candidates.
Then technical director Tim Steidten is said to have wanted compatriots Edin Terzic or Roger Schmidt.
Vice-chairman Brady was pushing hard for Potter – who is very close friends with her husband Paul Peschisolido.
Two unnamed agents, described as “influential” figures in West Ham’s decision-making, were championing high end names including former PSG boss Christophe Galtier, Max Allegri and Paulo Fonseca.
Meanwhile sporting director Mark Noble was keen on Middlesbrough boss and fellow former Academy of Football graduate Michael Carrick.
It has now emerged that two of those managers, Galtier and Fonseca, made extraordinary offers to Sullivan in order to land their first Premier League gig.
Football correspondent Graeme Bailey has told Hammers News that Galtier and Fonseca had talks with Sullivan when he was deliberating who should succeed Lopetegui.
Interestingly, Bailey says both Galtier – who is at Qatari club Al-Duhail – and Fonseca, who was out of work but is now in charge of Lyon, offered Sullivan the prospect that they would walk away from West Ham for nothing, if they did not finish this season in the top 10.
But if they succeeded, they would get two year deals.
Galtier and Fonseca pile pressure on Potter at West Ham
That showed the level of confidence Galtier and Fonseca both had that they would propel the team upwards.
Bailey has revealed Sullivan turned both down, though, as he believed finishing top-half was a minimum requirement for this squad and therefore did not include that in any deal.
Whether Sullivan regrets that decision now only he knows.
There is no guarantee either would have done a better job of course.
And Potter has now said it’s time to blame West Ham’s players as results fail to improve under a third manager in less than a year.
That Galtier and Fonseca were prepared to walk away if they didn’t finish top half undoubtedly turns up the heat on Potter given he has taken West Ham backwards.
And if, as now looks increasingly likely, the European spots do go down as far as 9th or 10th place in the Premier League, it will be even more galling for Sullivan and the Hammers board.
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