West Ham endured a poor second half to their 2023/24 campaign, which eventually saw David Moyes part company with the club.
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After taking them to the Europa Conference League title 12 months ago, it was felt that, perhaps, the Scot might be offered a new deal given that his contract at that point had a year left to run.
However, a series of poor results in the Premier League meant that conversations never really appeared to progress towards getting him to put pen to paper, and in the end, the Hammers decided to plump for Julen Lopetegui as the new first-team head coach.
His remit will be slightly different to Moyes in that it will be technical director, Tim Steidten, dealing with transfers. Lopetegui’s best work needs to be done on the training pitch.
Stan Collymore isn’t convinced by West Ham’s Julen Lopetegui
After initial reticence, it seems that the Hammers faithful are coming around to the idea of the Spaniard being at the helm, but as Stan Collymore noted, it’s an appointment that might not be a long-term one.
“Julen Lopetegui is a confident man and he’s had some of the biggest jobs that it’s possible to get, and I think that West Ham are obviously looking for somebody that can take them consistently into Europe over the next three or four years,” he said to CaughtOffside for his exclusive column.
“If you’re David Sullivan, you’re probably looking at clubs like Aston Villa and Newcastle and saying that’s where we should be. That’s where we want to be. We want to be in the Champions League. So we need a manager that can pretty much get us there.
“So Lopetegui’s experience at Real Madrid, at Sevilla, with the Spanish National team, at Porto and with Spanish under age groups… he ticks all the boxes. I’m just not convinced about him as a person.
“If you look at Wolves he was there for a year, if you look at Sevilla – three years, Real Madrid – he barely walked into the club before he was out again, Spain – a couple of years, Porto – a couple of years… if West Ham are looking to get into the Champions League, it’s a three, four or five year project, and he hasn’t stayed at a club for anywhere near that.
“So the question is, what’s in it for him? Massive payday.
“Is he particularly loyal? Wolves fans will say no. If he has a good season and let’s say do what Villa did last season, does anybody honestly think that if Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich came in for him that he’d still be at West Ham?”
Though Lopetegui came across as being sincere during his opening interview with club media, his suggestion that he’d be back at the London Stadium as manager one day, after managing Sevilla in a Europa League fixture there, smacked of party line.
He certainly needs to hit the ground running in terms of results, and by getting back to playing the West Ham way.
If he’s able to do that and get everyone onside, success should follow. To that end, if he’s the one driving that success, he’d be a foolish manager indeed to then jump ship.
Time will tell if Collymore’s hunch is proved correct.
This is from the guy who booked his hotel room for the conference league cup final as soon as Villa got entered, and look how that went!!
Lazy punditry, as he just doesn’t want West Ham to challenge Villa