Will Still is a name that has been spoken about by many Hammers fans over the last few years. The 32 year old played youth and amateur football in Belgium before beginning coaching at 17. At the age of 24 he managed Lierse in the Belgian First Division B going onto manage Beerschot in the same league four years later.
He then initially joined French club Reims as assistant manager becoming caretaker manager in October 2022. After an undefeated stretch of five games the job became full time. Remarkably he became the youngest football manager in Europe’s top five leagues aged 30, and his club were fined €25,000 for every game he managed as he didn’t have his full UEFA Pro License. Reims were happy to keep paying as the club completed a 19 match unbeaten run in all competitions, and went on set a new Ligue 1 record of 17 unbeaten league games. He also became only the second manager to achieve this in the 21st century within Europe’s top five leagues.
The following season wasn’t so great with Reims finishing eleventh and Still left the club by mutual consent.
He wasn’t long with out a club as French giants RC Lens appointed him in June 2024 on a three year contract and after eight league matches his club are currently fifth and unbeaten.
Still, a self confessed hammers fan, has always been open about his love for the club and his desire to manage the team he supports.
He has worked with his two brothers for much of his managerial career, with elder brother, Ed Still (33) and Niclas Still (27) joining him as his assistant managers at RC Lens.
One of the most important aspects of Stills football philosophy is the high press, pulling defences apart and creating wide overloads.
He will also mix it up from tiki-taka to direct passing. He generally sticks to a 4-2-3-1 formation yet is not afraid to change to 4-1-2-3 for some games.
In his clubs recent 2-0 away win at St Etienne they had 64% possession, superior passes 568, and 13 shots – five of which were on target – those statistics win games!
In the summer Brighton took a chance on appointing Fabian Hurzeler (31) as their new manager after a 65.4% win rate at St Pauli. He was oddly enough a manager that Steidten liked and so far has started well at the south coast club. West Ham opted for a more experienced manager in Julen Lopetegui whose best managerial win ratio stats were as Spanish U-19, U-20 and U-21 manager (84.4%), Spain (70%) and Porto (67.95%).
With West Ham’s stuttering start to the season, there has already been much unrest at the club, yet any link to Will Still is pure fantasy at the moment. It would have been a brave move by the board, and it should not be forgotten that Still rejected a move to Sunderland last June in favour of remaining in France.
The club never approached him post David Moyes departure yet a senior source said at the time that they admired what he had done.
On paper Still is the type of manager that many West Ham fans are craving for, a boyhood fan, who is carving out quite a name for himself, and above all a manager with a very modern approach to the game.
Si. This the guy!
My best decision.
We must be doing badly if will still articles are appearing again.
Stills bros sound great to me!