West Ham manager Graham Potter spoke to Ollie Scarles yesterday to reassure the young midfielder that his omission from the starting line-up was only temporary.
As Martin detailed earlier, Potter was mindful of Scarles’ big effort against Newcastle last Monday and decided to rest him yesterday. The West Ham boss revealed in his post-match Everton press conference that he had “had a word with Scarles” to let him know everything was fine.
In short, Potter reassured the 19-year-old that he had done nothing wrong and would be back in the team soon. But this raises another question—how is Potter handling the difficult task of reassuring Evan Ferguson?
With Niclas Füllkrug set to return for West Ham’s next game against Wolves, Ferguson’s chances of starting are looking even slimmer. Right now, he is nowhere near the first team, as Potter appears to prefer Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus in advanced roles, leaving no space for a striker.
Considering Ferguson pushed for a move from Brighton to play first-team football, this presents a major problem. The young Irish striker was desperate to reunite with Potter, the manager who gave him his debut at Brighton & Hove Albion.
West Ham were clearly in need of a striker at the time, and Potter made the 20-year-old his transfer priority. Unfortunately, things have not worked out—Ferguson can’t get near the starting line-up and managed just two minutes on the pitch yesterday.
Ironically, in his last appearance for Brighton before joining West Ham on loan, he played 20 minutes. Ferguson moved to get more football but has ended up getting even less! With only nine games left in the season, it’s hard to see a path into the starting XI for him.
Potter will need all his man-management skills to keep Ferguson motivated, especially as the striker must surely realise he made an error by joining. The only silver lining for West Ham is that there was never an obligation to buy—though, ironically, that may be why Ferguson isn’t playing.
So, no one is allowed to criticise the manager now? I dare say nobody is suggesting Potter is sacked,but it’s a stretch when your’re saying we cannot call out the manager regarding his handling of transfers.
FFS tell you what why dont we sack him and get Steve Cooper in no then how about Wayne Rooney or even better Steven Gerrard……..maybe Klopp will be interested or shall we go back in for Moyes and offer him a kings ransom to come back.
In short give the man a chance wait till he has had the summer window get the players in he wants then judge him on being a dinosaur who wont change blah blah blah.
As for reassuring Scarles Blimey he has only just broken through to the first squad and yes he is quality but he like everyone else has no guarantee of a start so suck it up get on with your job and stop whining to social media about how hard you are being done by.
What the same left back Dan burn at Newcastle just got called up for England
And scored in the Carabao Cup Final against Liverpool and help Newcastle win their first domestic trophy since their FA Cup win 70 years ago. 32 years old and given his England call up. Good luck to him and Peter’s post didn’t age well.
I’ve often thought that keep his powder dry out of other clubs thoughts and get him for a fair price and not end up in an auction bit like out of sight out of mind and there’s no sign of Ferguson making a fuss
This rather underlines Potter’s limitations, as a manager. It is a myth that all of Brighton fan’s were dismayed when he jumped ship. We had roughly 4 seasons of turgid, non goal scoring football, which resulted in reaching the global heights of mid table. During that time, Potter steadfastly refused to change the team, continuing to play Dan Burn at left back, where he got slaughtered, every week. Further, we had long series of games without scoring. I think that the longest was 6 or 7. During his time, we had a number of exceptional players, which really accounts for any success that we had. He played little part in the success. Many Brighton fans were quite happy that he left, it was the manner of his leaving, that was unpopular. It wasn’t a shock when he failed at Chelsea. I wouldn’t have wished him upon WH, a true footballing club. He should have gone to somewhere like Everton, where the beautiful game is not appreciated. His behaviour with Ferguson is unacceptable. How many goals are WH scoring and where are they in the table? It is a ridiculous situation. If you are comparing Füllkrug to Ferguson, then you really must have deserted the core values that were once held.
This is complete codswallop – im a Brighton fan too. Having been a Brighton fan since 1970 Id say that Potter is one of the best managers weve ever had. Id put only Poyet and Chris Cattlin ahead of him. To say he wa inflexible is the complete opposite of the truth. He was perpetually tinkering with the system – often mid match.