West Ham’s managerial crisis continues with rumours, snippets and suggestions being the order of the day. Graham Potter is still at the helm with the two games ahead of the international break his immediate priority as the Hammers manager clings on to the hope of points against Everton or Arsenal to keep him in post.
Widely reported discontent and disagreement at board level is not helping: several sources reporting Troy Deeney’s claim on talkSPORT that the Chairman and Vice Chairman have different preferred candidates to replace Potter. Brady apparently wants to appoint Nuno Espírito Santo whereas David Sullivan is leaning towards Bilic. Although how Deeney claims to have the inside info is not clear.
Typical West Ham mess.
What is apparent is that minority shareholder Daniel Kretinksy is being kept appraised of candidates for the job which the board consider and may yet play a decisive role in choosing the final successor to Graham Potter.
Good. Somebody overseeing the Sullivan / Brady recruitment bandwagon can only be good for the Hammers and it may yet explain why the process is so long drawn out.
The smart money is still on the ‘safer’ bet of Portuguese manager Nuno Espírito Santo. Once his ‘minor legal issues’ are ironed out with Nottingham Forest.
Other top tier clubs like Aston Villa – who have just fired Monchi as their ‘president of football operations’ manage to keep their coaching and Director of Football jobs separate, with a far less corrosive impact on the club when change is made. Perhaps Sullivan regrets changing the whole system when he fired Tim Steidten: A succession would be far easier to manage with a football expert at the helm rather than a business owner.
Which simply underlines exactly what the fan protests are all about.
Literally sully would be signing his resignation having Nuno, that would be the 4th Moyes in a row.
So who do you suggest then Pete, maybe Pep Guardiola?
If Kretinsky was to buy the Gold shares, what percentage of shares would he then hold? That might become very important especially as he seems to want to build a more football friendly ground.
It really doesn’t matter what the fans think, but the owners don’t know what there doing they sell our best players and buy players that just aren’t good enough for the Premiership. And as for myself I have lost interest in watching them play there terribly
So whose ‘pick’ is it for new manager this time? Previously it was apparently Sullivan that was impressed with that nice Spaniard, Lopetegui, and his charm in interview. Which, as we all know, is key to being a successful EPL coach🙄(and he did have EPL experience with Wolves). Potter was Karren Brady’s ‘pick’ and apparently Sullivan eventually went along with it. So is it time for somebody else to have a ‘pick? Perhaps Daniel Kretinsky should be given his go this time as, surely, he can’t do much worse. To be fair I think a lot of us fans were in aggreement with Potter getting the gig last time round. He seemed a safe bet. Oops!
I just don’t think Sullivan can be trusted with such a major decision anymore. He seems to be easily persuaded by nice, polite gentlemen (which could be construed as ‘yes’ men). Most of us did like Slaven Bilic during his times at West Ham but those times were a while back now and the Premier League has changed. Playing styles have evolved. It seems too risky to go back to Bilic as he has been out of the loop for so long.
If Kretinsky gets a ‘pick’ or is given the deciding vote between Nuno or Slaven then I would hope he goes with the Portuguese because he has the best stats. Unless Kretinsky could surprise us all with a different choice out of left field?
I don’t share your enthusiasm around Kretinsky assisting in the selection of our next manager, Martin. That’s just more of the same – business people thinking they know what is required to run a football team…
What I want Kretinsky to do, is come in and say “You’re devaluing my stake because you think you know what you’re doing, guys. You don’t. You’re not qualified to make this judgement, and neither am I. Instead, we’re going to focus on hiring someone who does first. Then we’ll ask them to hire our new manager.”
Potter has as long as that takes to put down the “I won’t change” Amorim playbook, recognise that his ego and ‘pet players’ are going to get him fired, and adapt. If he doesn’t, then we have seen all we need to, if we haven’t already.
It’s more often that going back ends up as a big mistake. So Bilic should not be considered
Quite right Martin.
A chairman who chairs the Board
A CEO (full time) who runs the club at a business and football level
A Commercial Director running the business side (IE non football)
A Technical/sporting (call it what you want) running the football side (overall charge of scouting operations, transfers and managerial appointments)
Head coach who runs the first team
Head of youth development who ensures youngsters keep coming through
We have a decent youth set up, with Nobes overseeing as I understand it.
No idea about the Commercial Director, but it doesn’t feel our trading income has increased significantly beyond attendance and TV revenues.
Chair/CEO/Tech Director all require replacement.