Managerial Merry-go-round - Hammer Time!
They say never go back. Once you’ve left, never go back. In football, in work, in life. However, we all love a come-back story. The romantic in us wants to see a happy ending, and in football, a player or manager returning to the former club to pick them out of the mire, is a story we can’t resist. So here we are. In 2025, mid-way through the season, David Moyes has answered the calls of his former club. A challenge, a return, he simply couldn’t refuse. Can he win them another European trophy? Can he salvage their season? Is his return to West Ham a good idea? Wait, no! That’s not right. David Moyes has not returned to West Ham, instead it is his first lover in Everton that has seduced him back into management. Moyes’ most recent club, West Ham, have made a managerial change in the last week, with Julien Lopetegui getting the chop and Graham Potter receiving the call up. And with that the managerial merry-go-round has begun. Why did both clubs feel the need to change, and what can both expect from their new (and old) men. The Lowe-Down.
First up, let’s look at the peculiar case
of West Ham. Like with my blog on Manchester United, it feels like we’ve been
here before. Oh wait, it’s because we have. David Moyes brings stability to the
club and soon after is told thanks but no thanks. In they bring a foreign
manager with a greater CV and a sexier name promising to bring attractive
football to the club. Manuel Pellegrini, Julien Lopetegui. When that doesn’t
happen, it starts to go wrong, and he’s replaced with a steady pair of British
hands. This time, it isn’t David Moyes, for asking him to return a third time
to pick them up out of the doldrums to then be replaced for an apparent upgrade
would be taking the mic. This time, it’s Graham Potter who takes the wheel.
Firstly, why did West Ham sack
Lopetegui? Well, to be honest the question should be what took them so long? I wrote
about the concerns I had on Lopetegui in my season preview back in the summer.
Lopetegui, to the casual, represented somewhat of an upgrade on the departed David Moyes. A Europa League winner, former Real Madrid and Spain manager, what
was not to like? However, a deeper dive into those gigs and his CV as a whole
makes for fascinating reading. A Spain manager who was sacked for flirting with
Real Madrid, and 4 months later had been giving his marching orders by Los
Blancos. Plus, there’s his stint at Wolves that was, well, uninspiring to be
polite. His style of football was never attacking or entertaining and it was naïve
to think it would be a huge upgrade on Moyes’. However, I can’t sit here and
pretend I saw them struggling to the extent they have this season. Moyes had made
West Ham a top half team, pushing the European places and only last season had
there been a drop off that meant a mutual parting of ways made some sense. Some
sense, so long as the replacement was a genuine upgrade, which Lopetegui hasn’t
been. Whilst the goals have dried up, they’ve been porous in defence. A lack of
fight has really plagued the team with humiliating homes losses to Liverpool,
Arsenal and Chelsea (5-0, 5-2 and 3-0) proving to be all too common. All of
this, despite a financial outlay of £121million in the summer.
Lopetegui isn’t alone in his failures this season. The failures at West Ham run deeper and run all the way to the top to the board, and ultimately, run directly to the door of Technical Director, Tim Steidten. Since arriving at West Ham, Steidten has fallen out with Moyes over recruitment in the summer of 2023, fallen out with Lopetegui too this season, and has spent an awful amount of money on some underperforming players. Only Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Max Killman have improved the West Ham starting XI this season with the rest making little to no impact at the club since arriving. The club, however, has long sought to buy a striker with no success. The spectres of Sebastian Haller, Simone Zaza and Gianluca Scamacca looming large. With Antonio injured, delivering on that front will be key for any success. Steidten is a man under pressure and the hot-seat in the directors box might now be hotter than than the one in the dugout.
And, how about the new man in the dugout then? Graham Potter in at West Ham. It’s been 22 months out of the game for Potter, since his dismissal at Chelsea. Is it a good fit? I think so yes. For Potter, it’s probably the biggest club in the Premier League he could come back in at, with the elite clubs regarding his time at Chelsea as a failure. Harsh or not, that appears to be the reality. For West Ham, it’s the best English manager who’s out there and available. They’re getting someone with Premier League experience and experience working at a mid-table team, in Brighton, and perhaps the job he did there is a little underrated with the recent success Roberto De Zerbi achieved there. Potter was the one who developed a lot of those players, putting in the foundations for the team to play the quality of football they do now, having inherited a relegation candidate team, in both style and results, from Chris Hughton.
Potter’s starting point at West Ham is
higher than the one he came in at Brighton, but with that comes higher expectations. He’s of course, used
to this, having managed Chelsea, albeit for 7 months. West Ham have some very
good players. Kudus and Paqueta, could, and probably will, be playing at the
elite level clubs, and players such as Bowen, Alvarez and Killman are good
Premier League players. Summerville, too, I expect to flourish under Potter. Expectations
for this season are for an improvement on both the football and results of Lopetegui,
which shouldn’t be too tricky. Steering the club into the top-half, whilst steadily
implementing a cohesive style of play would be considered a very good achievement
for this season. With that foundation and a good summer of recruitment, the
future should be looking rosier for the Hammers.
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