My West Ham WhatsApp groups became a hive of activity last night, and it wasn’t just well-wishers saying Happy New Year.
The buzz stemmed from a rumour making the rounds, suggesting Graham Potter had decided he no longer wanted the West Ham manager’s job.
Now, I can’t claim any inside information on this, but I’ve found the whole situation of Potter “waiting in the wings” incredibly bizarre.
While I understand why any potential manager would seize the chance to step into a Premier League job, I can’t fathom why a coach of Potter’s standing would act as an understudy to a club so clearly struggling with indecision.
To be absolutely clear, Potter is far from my first choice to become West Ham head coach. Given the complexities of the club, the Hammers need a leader with an incredibly strong personality. Of course, man-management skills and tactical acumen are vital, but Potter has always struck me as a quiet, humble, and cerebral figure.
Not only does his record at Chelsea concern me, but I believe he would be eaten alive at West Ham given the infighting and complex ownership structure currently in place.
West Ham are not an easy club to manage
Anyone but Lopetegui?
That said, I also think almost anyone could outperform Julen Lopetegui with the resources at his disposal. I firmly believe West Ham are clinging to Premier League safety thanks to individual brilliance, not tactical genius from the head coach.
So, while I understand why West Ham might identify someone like Potter to take over on a short-term basis should Lopetegui’s tenure end, I can’t understand why Potter has remained on standby for so long. The Hammers’ victory in our so-called “El Sackico” against Wolves ensured Lopetegui kept his job, making the position no longer available.
Yet, we’re led to believe Potter remains an “in-case-of-emergency-break-glass” option. For the life of me, I can’t understand why any coach with job prospects would linger in the background for over a month, only to see the carrot dangled in front of him snatched away at the last minute.
This situation has puzzled me from the outset. If I were a manager, I’d quickly conclude that West Ham are a club without a clear vision. It must be evident to anyone eyeing the top job at the London Stadium that the Hammers are simply hoping for the best with a role that may or may not become available.
Rumours surfaced yesterday that Potter has grown tired of waiting for West Ham to make up their minds and has decided to walk away. Whilst I can’t confirm the story’s accuracy, I certainly wouldn’t blame him if it’s true
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Happy New Year!
I don’t believe we will be relegated as the teams below us are poor and not playing anywhere near good enough to stay up!
Having said that I think we will have a worrying time and flirt with the bottom 5.
We are about to enter an interesting period a manager who doesn’t have the confidence of the players or the fans but does the board. As has been said here Del boy Dave won’t sack for fear or two things ‘redundancy’ payments and doesn’t want to look like he failed in his selection. But would now be a good time – international break almost upon us – to replace a manager. Figures suggest he is slightly better than Moyes but the players are going through the motions. Outplayed by Liverpool (& the ref) and we got what we deserved 5 zip. I don’t see Man City being much different despite their problems. So unless Del Boy Dave has been visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past/present/future JLo is here to stay until they can push him out without paying. The question is who would want this poison chalice? Working with the players would be brilliant working with the current board, I would run a mile.
65 years Hammer supporter, seen a lot but not sure much has changed, apart from the fantastic support every match at home gets with a full stadium 60000 plus against the 35000 at Upton Park. Players change, lose form, get injured etc, managers try their best with whoever is available. However don’t ever forget the the fantastic West Ham Family principles of recruiting within if possible, we have a lifelong servant in Mark Noble what he lacks in experience would be balanced by his commitment and loyalty to the West Ham cause and his presence in the dressing room . Recently retired has known Premier league tactics and talks from all the managers we’ve got through, ready made to fill the role so get rid of the current guy now, he cannot be worse and would have the full support of all the Irons fanbase, ⚒️⚒️⚒️⚒️⚒️
My thought’s are if Sullivan had wanted Potter he would be there by now early in the season he said Potter was a hard NO Brady has been doing the pushing on Potter By the time they do something all the names mentioned will be in work already 2 mentioned have got jobs now and will Sullivan pay the wages of the ones left
You have done it again, Gonzo. Absolutely correct. This club, at the moment is a joke & I can’t believe that any self respecting manager would join it in the present circumstances; let alone allow themselves to be kept dangling on a string, as Potter apparently is. Also, I agree that Potter probably is not the right man for us. But, there again, who exactly is ?
Sulivan shit show.go back to porn.one man holding the club to ransom.
Same old rubbish by Sullivan., he is to old thinks he knows football and managers yet knows nothing cocks it up every time. We all know J lo should have gone months ago. Sullivan playing for time, don’t blame any manager not coming to us with what’s going on in the boardroom, Sullivan tight as f,,,, will not pay him off.yet it’s his mistake, Potter did a good job at Brighton and Chelsea at the start
Sully to keep J-Lo in post until end of season…Man Ure, Ipswich & S’oton get relegated…we finish 4th from bottom and new manager takes over in time for next season…Bowen out is a big loss so time for big time Charlies to step up and show some character or give some kids the chance.
The club has a rot at the core. The owners are the problem, nothing will ever change unless the root is of the problem is destroyed.
Curious to know who would be your preferred appointment if Lopetegui is sacked, and Potter far from your first choice?
Mickey Mouse club…..
Absolute shambles we are and always will be with Sullivan in charge though.
I’ve never felt so detached from this club in my lifetime than what I do now,we are embarrassing, all this he’s got 2 more games bs,that was being said months ago,now it’s City and Villa up next, another 2 thrashings coming up then it’s gonna be oh he’s got another 2 games…fu#k off honestly were a joke.
We’ve got tiny clubs like Brighton and Bournemouth showing us the way how clubs should be run….sick of this Sullivan sh#t show
The rot runs a lot deeper than the manager.
WHU made a considerable profit last year, so why would ownership change course?
When the big clubs come the stadium fills with away fans, so why would ownership change course?
WHU is functionally West Ham Wanderers, with no home pitch and forever playing away games, supported by a diminishing number of diehards.
Neither would I, for the same reasons you dismiss him, I count him in as the right appointment. If you watched Chelsea play under him as I did, they played well they outperformed their opposition in most attacking stats and if they scored the goals they should have would have been top 3.
I feel we would score more goals, strong personalities will never do well with an egomaniac running the club who is so insecure he can’t let others shine and it has to be all about him. Potter is emotionally intelligent and humble enough to realise he made mistakes at Chelsea and can do better.
Hopefully it’s not true what you have heard although it is certainly possible.
SACK THE BOARD
SACK THE BOARD
SACK THE BOARD
I never understood the “sack the board” mantra. The board own the club, would they have to sack themselves? We as supporters are not share holders.
That’s debatable Morty we share supporting the club and we hold that.
I have paid them many seasons of payments and have had enough of their rubbish, I don’t feel that Sullivan in particular is a competent chairman, evidenced by the haphazard scattergun spending policy, his inability to change when it’s clear it’s needed such as now, previously with Avram Grant, Bilic etc and when he shouldn’t have under Clarke and Zola, all these are personal opinions.
If others feel similarly and want to protest will support them.
Agreed this board is little better than the previous one, which incidentally was the final straw for me as a season ticket holder. My only disagreement is that we can’t physically sack the board, yes we can protest in various ways, but they own the club 😊⚒️
Yes agree with that and also why I refused to renew this season, waiting until the psychodrama of the Sullivan reign ends.
West Ham are in the biggest mess they gave been since the days of the Grant and Roeder relegation seasons. The manager has lost the players and the fans and now Bowen who was the one player really keeping us afloat. On the one hand anyone is better than Lopetegui but in the other it’s a one chance opportunity to transform the situation. Get it wrong again and we are doomed to the championship. Sullivan has left it too long now I reckon he’s going to stick with Lopetegui until the end of the season no matter what. Just keep on with the unofficial three more games routine week on week. Same as those Grant / Roeder seasons and probably with the same result. He trotted out the same line when Moyes was struggling and still waited for his contract to expire. When we (including me) wanted Moyes out and actual football we forgot how bad Sullivan is at recruiting managers. Moyes was the only one that wasn’t a disaster. Grant, Alladyce, Bilic, Pelligrini, Lopetegui – all bad barring a Payet season with Bilic. With hindsight maybe we should have known Sullivan would screw it up and stuck with non football Moyes.
Potter to SPURS is more likely afterall who would want to come to our Hackney Marches amateur type setup
Everyone harps on about his stint at Chelsea, no-one ever mentions he took Ostersund from the Swedish 4th division to the first, won the Swedish cup. Took Ostersund to the Europa league and beat Galatasary and Arsenal on the way.
Look this is Sulivan hanging it out because he can’t believe he’s got it wrong! Having said that the supporters want Loppy gone, the players are moaning about his tactics and falling our with him, the pundits are saying he should be sacked and even ex players of the club say he should be gone. Sulivan your on your own, maybe you should go too.
The clown car wobbles on with Sullivan at the wheel . Worryingly , it seems that Westham could have lost 10-0 to Liverpool and Lopetegui would still have kept his job . Is the same true against Man City then perhaps a result against a second string Villa team would save his job again . Sullivan is sneakily doing everything in his power to keep Lopetegui . With Bowen out Westham are not safe from relegation , especially with the lower teams beginning to get results .
That’s because, as we all know, no one would ‘stand by’ just in case the job became vacant.
It’s a good story for social media columns rather than it having any element of truth in it.
From what I know intermediaries were sounded out over potters interest in the role but an offer was never made directly to potter himself
But that’s not a story that will carry on social media hence the made up nonsense that potter is just waiting in the wings
Sullivan will not sack JLo before or during the transfer window. He doesn’t want a new manager coming in demanding signings and subsequently putting pressure on the board. The whole club is run like a Sunday league club.
It would appear that the management of the club is completely out of tune with each other.
How on earth these people could run successful businesses is beyond me.
The phrase “pxss up” and brewery springs to mind.
To think that one of these guys has taken over the Post Office leads me to believe that we’re in more trouble in this country than before the last election.
Not looking forward to the next few years until the next election.
However, the football team, following Jarrod Bowen’s injury, will now have to stand up and be counted otherwise we could be seeing Plymouth, Coventry, perhaps even Leyton Orient et al, at our stadium (which has waited almost ten years for a name) in the season 2025/26.
Fingers crossed XXX
Let’s hope your football knowledge out performs your political thinking
You think we are in a worse mess than when truss and kwarteng marched us towards the precipice of financial ruin because they wanted to give their wealthy mates a huge tax cut and give the rest of us nothing except the joy of cleaning up the huge pile of merde they had left? An interesting political viewpoint if somewhat ludicrous, but if you like bowing and scraping to the rich and bigoted fill your boots
No I don’t think that, I think the absolute opposite actually. Labour are not perfect but have done some good things already. They were not responsible for the leadership of the Post office as unfortunately it is not state owned.
No sorry Morty I was replying to the first poster mate
Ha ha I am easily confused, I thought I may have misread the initial post! 😂😂⚒️⚒️
Yeah, think this Potter “waiting in the wings” scenario always sounded a bit unbelievable as you say, Gonzo.
Even more unbelievable, is the dead wood that parade as our board are still employing the hopeless Spanish buffoon !
I really find it hard to believe that Potter waited around in the first place and the total lack of direction from the board and the ramshackle way the club is run is enough to put any decent manager off. Sullivan is not going to leave nor is the battleaxe Brady but what they need to do is quietly collect their profits and leave the football decision making to someone who knows a bit about football.
What’s for certain is that we are not reducing the number of chances we’re presenting and while lesser teams may miss them better teams will not.
With Man City, Villa twice, Arsenal and Chelsea coming up it seems that we’re set for a number of defeats in the near future including going out of the FA Cup. The likes of Haaland and Watkins are unlikely to miss too many…
It’s very like watching a slow motion car crash with the eventual wreck being our season.
To be honest John, I would be happier if we lost all of those and Lopetegui got fired. When you see results like Ipswich 2, Chelsea 0 it is scary because West Ham’s chances of stealing a point here and there and thereby keeping that fraud in a job, increase, and from what I am reading there are enough idiots around to keep Lopetegui at LS until May. It really is unbelievable that he is still in the job.
John, making chances is no good if we haven’t any strikers to convert them. Back in your day playing we had quality strikers e.g. Hurst Byrne, Greaves, and a few more. I suppose we were lucky then as players didn’t move around much, so you could plan, as greenwood did to mould a team to play the ‘West Ham way’ and yes, it really did exist.