When the news filtered through from West Ham United that Graham Potter had lost his job, it barely brought about even a flicker of surprise on the face of London Stadium cult hero Vladimir Coufal.
Now, a lesser man may have let out a snide chuckle. Perhaps a muttered, embittered ‘told you so’.
But you get the sense that Vladimir Coufal, a man who just ‘gets it’ when it comes to wearing the claret and blue of West Ham United, would have rather seen Graham Potter bring happier times to the London Stadium, even if the nature of the right-back’s departure still rankles with him.
Michail Antonio and Lukasz Fabianski hit out at Potter when their contracts expired over the summer, even if the latter would return on a short-term deal soon after.
Coufal had issues with the former West Ham boss himself. Mainly, how Potter handled the 33-year-old’s departure. Long-time teammate and close friend Tomas Soucek ‘could not believe it’ when Coufal was told his contract would not be renewed, only a few weeks before curtain fell on the 2024/25 campaign.
He was not the only one.
In the space of one summer, West Ham moved on six players who had made over 1,200 appearances for the club combined.
Looking back now, one of the departed sextet cannot help but feel this was a decision which cost Potter dearly in the end.
Vladimir Coufal feels Graham Potter paid for letting so many West Ham United veterans go
Alongside Vladimir Coufal, Michail Antonio and [briefly] Lukasz Fabianski, West Ham also bid farewell to Kurt Zouma, Danny Ings and Aaron Cresswell.
Hammers News were told that West Ham wanted to reduce the age of Potter’s squad. Thus, moving on a host of veterans while making room for younger, more long-term alternatives. In theory, the idea is a sound one.
But in practice, it left the Hammers badly lacking in experience or leaders.
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Former goalkeeper Rob Green watched that Chelsea debacle with an expression of horror on his face in August. How West Ham needed a couple of those old heads, he thought, in a 5-1 home defeat.
Two months on, while the results have picked up a little under Nuno Espirito Santo, Coufal cannot help feel that the Iberian’s predecessor dug his own grave to an extent that previous summer.
“I’d be lying if I said I was surprised when I found out Potter had been sacked,” Coufal tells The Athletic. “It was coming with the results not being good, the football not being great, and the club being in the relegation zone.
“What West Ham miss are characters like Mark [Noble] and Declan [Rice]. Their leadership was important to the changing room, and other players like Aaron, Micky and Angelo [Ogbonna, who departed in 2024] had a huge influence in the changing room.
‘They were the old guns.”
Coufal explains why Jarrod Bowen has such a difficult role at West Ham
Just two and a half years ago, West Ham became the first English team to win the UEFA Conference League thanks to Jarrod Bowen’s winner against Fiorentina in Prague.
Of the 23 players picked in David Moyes’ matchday squad that night, remarkably only five remain.
Bowen’s status as captain has come under question of late too. The man who inherited the armband following Rice’s £105 million move to Arsenal did not do enough, some critics felt, to stop Lucas Paqueta from talking his way into an early bath in Sunday’s 2-0 home defeat by Liverpool.
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Was letting Coufal go a mistake?
Coufal feels that, for a forward player, leading the team is a more difficult task than for a defender or a midfielder, a la former skippers Rice, Noble or Zouma.
“Jarrod is a great leader and the club would be in an even bigger mess without him,” adds Coufal, who has been a man reborn at Champions League-chasing Hoffenheim in Germany. “But it’s difficult to lead the team as an offensive player.
“Noble and Rice were midfielders and could see everything. If Jarrod wants to shout at someone, he could be on the other side of the pitch, which makes it harder. Noble and Rice were in the middle, so there was no hiding from them.
“Noble and Rice used to call team meetings if we were in tough moments. If Noble said something in the changing room, you kept quiet and listened. No one would dare say anything out of respect for him.
“Rice learned from Noble and became a great captain as a result. Without question, he will be the next England captain.
“I’m proud I got to share the changing room with both of them.”
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