Press conferences have been ‘interesting’ of late compared to the incomprehensible Lopetegui era. Gone are the days of puzzling over J’Lo’s incomprehensibly cautious sessions where we learned absolutely nothing worth reporting: Graham Potter famously lost his cool last week with emotions running high after the two goals in three minutes debacle.
Considering the significance of the upcoming fixture – to West Ham fans if not, seemingly to their manager – Graham Potter could do well to listen and learn to his Czech midfielder Tomas Soucek, who evidently knows the significance of the local derby and the animosity between the two sets of fans.
Soucek famously retorted that the only thing left in West Ham’s season – back in February – was the aim to finish above Spurs, thus endearing himself even further to Hammers supporters.
Graham Potter on the other hand wandered – apparently unwittingly – into dangerous territory by wishing Spurs well and hoping they reached their European final. As Claret and Hugh‘s article yesterday, Potter seemed hell -bent on Schmoozing his opposite number at North London.
Needless to say, his comments have not gone down well with some West Ham fans. the dailymail.co.uk even went so far as to report some fans wanted him sacked because of his pro-Spuds comment:
“West Ham supporters have turned on Graham Potter after he made a controversial statement about their London rivals Tottenham ahead of this weekend’s Premier League meeting between the two clubs…They’ve done well in Europe, and hopefully they can finish the job and get into the final.
Potter’s desire to see a rival reach a European final did not go down well with a number of West Ham fans who took to social media to call for the club to take drastic action. ‘Sack him immediately,’ one supporter posted on X. Another added: ‘Get him out’. ‘Potter out based purely upon this,’ another fan agreed.”
No, Graham, just – no.
If you are not aware of the strength of animosity between the fans of West Ham and their north London neighbours, go talk to Tomas Soucek who clearly ‘gets’ this club and its fan base and realises that intense rivalry ranks above being ‘jolly good sports’ or media sound bytes and nice-guy style wishing everyone well. That may apply to all other teams bar Spurs and Millwall FC: Those two exceptions will be forever condemned to the ‘hope they lose’ category whatever the opponent, whatever the occasion.
Proof if any were needed that Graham Potter still has a long way to go to win over the West Ham faithful. No more Mr nice guy, please, when discussing our rivals. If you can’t say something bad about them, best you just don’t say anything at all.
How about he looks in the mirror and wishes himself good luck?
He’s going to need it to get anything out of last 4 games.
Thinks he has pressure it won’t be anything compared to what it will be with remaing loses.
Good grief. That any site that wants to be considered authoritative pays attention to a venomous rag like the Mail is undermining enough; that you use it to quote approvingly nasty and ignorant bigots calling for Potter to be sacked for wishing a rival manager well in Europe shows what a parody of itself this site is rapidly becoming. Shallow, swaying with every tide. This was such an important site for WHU fans: I am now finding it ever less and less worth the reading. What an enormous shame.
And for those crying, ‘But it’s the Spuds!’: the more successful Englush clubs are in Europe, the more places are available, and the better our own chances if we do actually compete in the top half next season. And if the Sbups winning helps our prospects in that, I’ll take it every day.
Very well said, I couldn’t agree more
Cant even whip up any enthusiasm anymore over this Spurs derby That’s how much W Ham have brought me down over last 2 years after years of following our untill recently great club
There’s plenty of reasons to get rid of this muppet. Trying to foster some hatred towards our rivals and heap even more on this fool is a bit pathetic.
A fuss over nothing.