A new West Ham signing has sent a strong message to David Sullivan, insisting the club should stick with Graham Potter despite the early signs of pressure already beginning to show on the manager.
When Graham Potter was appointed as West Ham’s new head coach back in January, outspoken pundit Simon Jordan made an accusation which stood out.
Never one to hold his tongue, Jordan called West Ham’s new boss Potter a ‘flake’ and said his reputation is greater than his deeds.
It may have seemed harsh at the time to West Ham fans desperate for some hope and a manager who could turn the club around after a period of huge regression.
But so far his words have proved unerringly accurate.
Jordan’s ‘flaky’ Potter jibe looking highly accurate at West Ham
“I mean, what’s this fella all about? Really, who is he that he’s that great he can tell everyone they’ve got to wait?” Jordan said at the time.
“I mean, I think he’s a flake anyway…
“I call him a flake because I think the manner in which he operated at Chelsea was flaky and weak.
“And I’m not alone in that thinking and now he has an opportunity to correct that thinking, like all managers, by doing something different.”
The problem for Potter is that he hasn’t corrected that thinking.
The Hammers have won just five of his 20 games in charge.
And most concerning of all is that the worst of those came against newly-promoted Sunderland after Potter has had seven months and a full pre-season to start making an impact.
There was a telling moment last season when Potter flipped under mounting pressure after a 3-2 defeat at his old club Brighton.
Being under constant pressure is a given in football management, especially in the Premier League – and particularly when you are at a big club and not doing well.
It is the price on the ticket.
West Ham threw away a late 2-1 lead at Potter’s old club to lose 3-2. After the game Potter had a meltdown in his press conference after being booed off by both sets of fans.
After talking up a positive pre-season, the Irons were on the end of their worst result under him with the 3-0 defeat at the Stadium of Light.
Now, in his pre-match press conference ahead of Chelsea Potter has shown the flakiness Jordan highlighted.
After one match of the new season Potter is spiky, defensive and woe-is-me.
West Ham pressure showing already on spiky, sulky Potter
He bemoaned the fact the press conference was packed compared to last week, suggesting the press were like vultures circling their prey, rather than acknowledging the fact West Ham are about to play Chelsea – a much more glamorous and high interest fixture than the Hammers playing Sunderland.
Many feel Potter is nothing more than a PE teacher with a psychology degree.
And he does little to shake that reputation in press conferences and interviews, wheeling out the same cliches week in, week out.
He was up to his old tricks in the pre-Chelsea presser when he was stopped in his tracks by talkSPORT’s West Ham supporting reporter Ian Abrahams.
Credit where it is due, Abrahams was the only one to take Potter to task about some of his throwaway cliches.
Potter did not like it one bit, responding in a sulky manner when asked to explain what he means by basics.
The Hammers boss said signing players is not the silver bullet to fix West Ham’s problems.
But when asked by Abrahams what the silver bullet is for West Ham then, Potter said ‘that’s the point, there isn’t one’.
Abrahams responded: “Is that it?” to which Potter said “Yes” to end a press conference which once again showed Jordan’s ‘flaky’ accusation to hold some truth.
If Potter is feeling the heat after one game, imagine if things really turn toxic – which they will if he does not turn West Ham around quickly.
The manager has the backing of some at the club at least.
Now a West Ham new boy has told David Sullivan to stick with Potter as the pressure shows already.
Potter is very much a Karren Brady appointment at West Ham.
The vice-chair pushed for Potter to get the job with Sullivan initially reluctant and only willing to hand him a six-month deal.
West Ham new boy tells Sullivan to stick with ‘fantastic’ Potter
It is fair to say Potter probably would not have been retained had Sullivan got his way off the back of a dismal record of five wins in 19 matches by the end of last season.
Brady went on talkSPORT to defend her husband’s close friend after the Sunderland shambles.
Jordan feels Brady left the door open for West Ham to sack Potter, pointing out she used the words ‘hope it works out’ rather than sounding convinced it will.
With a tough run of fixtures, true pressure will mount quickly if West Ham don’t pick up some results.
But Potter’s first permanent signing of his Hammers tenure is calling on the club to stick by the manager.
El Hadji Malick Diouf says Potter is a manager who can make players like him better and go on to be stars.
Calling him a ‘fantastic man’, Diouf has waxed lyrical about the under pressure 50-year-old and the environment he has created at West Ham.
“The environment in the dressing room is brilliant,” Diouf told West Ham’s website.
“I want to joke with everyone, so it’s going well.
“We have the good feeling, and on the pitch we are working, not only for ourselves, but for the team, which I think is very important, and we are ready to have a positive Premier League season…
“He (Graham Potter) is a fantastic man, and I am really happy to have him as my coach. I think he can help me a lot in my career because he’s helped develop so many players to a very high level, and you can see that within the squad just now.
“I think it’s a really good place for me right now.”
Words are great of course and perhaps offer a sense of perspective one game in.
But the only way Potter will show Sullivan and the West Ham fans he is the right man for the job is to start getting supporters invested in what he is doing with a recognisable and exciting style of play and improved results.
And there’s no better way to start that than against Chelsea.
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