West Ham United are thought to be keeping one or two managers on the back-burner, just in case a move to bring Graham Potter to the London Stadium fails to go through.
Graham Potter is being lined up to replace Julen Lopetegui at West Ham, with the Spaniard having failed to oversee any kind of progress whatsoever at the London Stadium this season.
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The Hammers formally offered the 49-year-old a contract on Monday night, but there has been no official confirmation yet regarding whether he has accepted the terms.
One thing that is certain in my mind is that Lopetegui has no future at West Ham.
Whether Potter will be the man to replace him or not remains to be seen.
Potter is clearly the West Ham owners’ first choice, but they seemingly have a contingency plan in place, just in case they’re unable to lure the former Chelsea boss.
West Ham worryingly eyeing Graham Potter alternates
Potter asked the Hammers board for 24 hours to make a decision when offered the deal on Monday night.
So we probably won’t know whether he’s the man coming in to replace Lopetegui until later this evening at the earliest.
Whilst I’m pretty confident that Potter will be the new Hammers manager imminently, his appointment is obviously far from a done deal.
If he turns us down, the West Ham owners have a possible alternative to come in when Lopetegui is moved on.
And the Hammers fans surely won’t like it one little bit.
The West Ham board are said to admire the recently sacked Gary O’Neil, according to a report from The Times.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
The 41-year-old would be a terrible appointment for West Ham – one that would reek of a total lack of ambition.
O’Neil struggled at Wolves, and he’s hardly a tactical genius is he!
West Ham appointing Gary O’Neil instead of Graham Potter would be a real backwards step – one that would totally kill any chance we have of making some genuine progress.
Let’s just all keep our fingers crossed that the Hammers board make the correct appointment.
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