Julen Lopetegui’s pain and frustration is very easy to detect but a tough ‘read’: Ostensibly a decent man who was just out of his depth at West Ham, the former Hammers head coach has given his first in-depth interview since his phone call with David Sullivan and Karren Brady terminated his employment last month.
Yes, it was just last month. The Potter revolution has been going all of six weeks.
Speaking in yesterday’s Guardian, Julen Lopetegui maintained a dignified silence over the thorny issue of Tim Steidten’s role and the disagreements between the two. He is clearly still upset that in his eyes, the team’s position was not so bad -“Sacking isn’t normal, unless you’re in relegation. In week 18 we had 23 points. There was time to do many things. Many things. You think: ‘Hey, our work’s not done.”
In a thinly veiled jibe at his predecessor, Lopetegui derided the team’s form under Moyes and the physical condition of the players he inherited: The first half of last season was really good but in the second, West Ham’s form, the trend, was practically relegation. The data showed the worst team physically.”
Maintaining that when Lopetegui arrived, he had a mountain to climb to move the team forward: “We had new players to integrate, a new idea, less individualistic. It isn’t easy. If the players aren’t convinced, the coach is screwed”
Lopetegui is still, sometimes at his befuddling Cantona-like best: Referring to the tenacity required to coach successfully: “When you’re drilling for oil, you go down, down, down, down … and you’re getting ever closer, even if oil doesn’t appear yet. The key is: are you drilling because you’re convinced there’s oil there? Or just drilling? If halfway through you change well, that’s no guarantee. “
Ah yes, those turns of phrase that had even the most seasoned journalists shaking their heads at the press conferences. Cannot say I miss them. It does seem as though ‘JLo’ has now obtained ‘closure’ and is in a much happier place. As for the future: “Better to stop, recover, reset. But football is what I have always loved and always will love, until the end.”
Whatever is next for Lopetegui, we wish him well.
Lopetegui has made multiple times more from his six months in the West Ham hot seat than probably any of us here have made in a 50 year working life, and he got that for single handedly setting back his employers by at least 12 months. What he did he did on his own with no help from Moyes, Steidten or anyone else. In the process, his toxic methods and attitude undermined the confidence of world class players and cultivated division among all who actually do care about West Ham United, something he will never know. He has been paid handsomely for failure, something we will never know, and so I do not give a rats rear end where he goes or what he fails at next, I am just glad he has gone from WHU.
This is the only Lopi has said about West Ham that makes sense and Moyes has a lot to answer for. The squad was unbalanced, old and. It very fit.nevertheless, he arguably made things worse. It’s just a same that Sullivan made Steiden the scapegoat for his own failings. West Ham will miss Steiden’s undoubted transfer negotiation skills
Well said. Steidten did well for West Ham, as the rest of the football world can see. He leaves with his reputation enhanced. Recruitment was much approved after a succession of terrible Sullivan signings. But I think Potter’s team will do well too.
Very simply he is a bad manager wherever he has been and only really in the loop because of that **** Ballague if that is how his names spelt….I hear he is in Mexico right now helping with a hotel project of his brothers well good luck but i wont booking a room there as he sets very shaky foundations
A Bad workman ALWAYS blames his tools and Lopetegui is being no different he just wasn’t up for the job and with even less help when Sniden was at the helm
Lopetegui was not the only culprit. Recruitment under Moyes was not good, poor recruitment and even non recruitment. We’ll make do with Iron Mike for another year, no I don’t want to bid on Gyokeres at £17M and Kalvin Phillips is just the man for the job can we bring in Maguire too.
But all of it comes under the umbrella of the club isn’t run properly. In a properly run club Moyes does recruit properly because he’s made to do so and Lopetegui isn’t appointed at all. We’re only ever a moment away from the next bad decision.
The effects of the final Moyes transfer window will affect us for years and altered our trajectory as a club immeasurably.
Short-sightedness, beligerence, fear even prevented Moyes from bringing in the only one or two players desperately needed at that time.
Had he done so, who knows? Winning the Europa league wouldn’t have been out of the question with CL qualification as a result.
We all know the capitulation that followed and for that alone I will never forgive Moyes.
The fact there were so many players he upset and allegedly had altercations with suggest something deeper rooted than the oil was to blame, there was an environmental disaster caused by his leadership.
He had a lot happening outside of work and there is truth that Moyes set the players back, going from one negative manager to another was not likely to deliver what the fans wanted though chairmen these days don’t seem to care much about the fans or the product it’s all about money.