The West Ham training ground has been described as âfar from a happy ship,â according to an insider at Rush Green.
Claret & Hugh spoke to a source behind the scenes while investigating speculation around Aaron Wan-Bissakaâs ongoing absence from Graham Potterâs squad. Last seasonâs Hammer of the Year has been sidelined with what the club claim is a stomach injury, though Potter had been vague when pressed on the matter.
Potter is said to have fallen out with Todibo
Before Potterâs dismissal was confirmed, we asked whether there had been a fallout between the manager and Wan-Bissaka. The insiderâs reply was revealing:
âWan-Bissaka is injured, he gets on fine with the manager. There is a big problem with Todibo, Fullkrug and a couple of others to a lesser extent.â
That would certainly explain why Jean-Clair Todibo had recently been benched despite Max Kilmanâs poor form. It had also been reported earlier this week that Potter still retained the support of some senior playersâbut clearly, not everyone shared that view.
Whether this split in the squad played a role in hastening Potterâs departure is difficult to say, though divisions are common in teams struggling at the foot of the Premier League table.
West Ham squad far from happy
Todibo cut an unhappy figure on the bench against Palace
From my vantage point near the substitutesâ bench last Saturday, both Todibo and Niclas FĂźllkrug â along with Luis Guilherme â looked far from happy. The entire bench and coaching staff were subdued, far quieter and less animated than their Crystal Palace counterparts, even when West Ham were not behind.
While the revelations reflect poorly on Potter, it is worth noting that both Todibo and FĂźllkrug also clashed with former boss Julen Lopetegui.
It will now be interesting to see whether Potterâs departure opens the door for Todibo and FĂźllkrug to return to the first-team fold.
Ward-Prowse will play at Everton. He played for the new manager while on loan at Forest.
If we did an honest first team review its pretty rough. Not even going to comment on the crazy money spent on some of these.
We have 3 decent fullbacks and Jarrod Bowen.
Areola – good shot-stopping
Hermansen – good distribution?
Todibo – sell – he’s a walking shrug.
Kilman – upgrade – never been better than OK in a few games.
Mavropanos – upgrade – inconsistent.
JWP – sell – midfield mediocrity.
Paqueta – cash in – a handful of good performances, a goal conceding liability for the rest.
Summerville – retain – lightweight but fast and promising.
Fernandes and Magassa- see what they can do
Fullkrug – sell – often injured, slow and mouthy behind the scenes.
If Nuno gets a tune out of this current squad as it stands the guy deserves a statue outside.
What is going on? This club has become the laughing stock of, not only the Premier League, but that of world football. This has become a circus, with the clowns running the show. Embarrassing for the supporters of this club, shameless behaviour by the Teflon coated board, with the press having a field day at the pathetic excuses – never has fan of this club felt so distanced from it. This situation has quickly escalated from papering over the cracks to evacuating the families before the immediate need of underpinning the estate before it is raised to the ground. Pathetic doesnât begin to describe the perpetrators, these people are so far removed from reality they are in a different epoch to the rest of us. I, like many other people connected to West Ham United am so deeply disappointed with the whole situation that it seems like we are turning up to an earthquake armed with a dust pan and brush.
Grow up players do the talking on the pitch
The best news is JWP will not get a look in for the rest of the season
Tobido seems to have an issue with every coach he works with.
FulkrĂźg was very outspokenly supportive of Potter in pre-season, indeed until his injury.
Considering the awful start, the support Potter continued to receive from senior players is testament to his man management skills…….but not his tactical/coaching skills!
Tobido has not yet been given a chance . He has been played out of position alongside the worst defender in the league. A centre back with no back bone . Canât head a ball or jump . He couldnât knock my gran of off the ball . Now there is a waste of money . Kilman should be benched and sold in January. Ward Prowse hopefully wonât get a game with Nuno so the team is looking better already. COYI
just my own observations , but if a player falls out with 2 consecutive mangers on the spin then wouldnât that suggest that there is a problem with that playerâs attitude rather than a managerâs man management skills ? ? torpedo has been as consistently poor as was aguerd who also seemed to have an unfortunate attitude toward the club (i.e. iâm too injured to play for the club but iâll rock up at the world cup and play out of my skin for morocco) , as for fullkrug (who i donât mind) i really donât see how a player who has spent so much of his time with us injured can have a shirty attitude with regard to a manager for not being the 1st name of the teamsheet .
Potter did my nut in but respect to him.about the notice he left to the club ..staff and us fans ….I wish the guy well and his family
So we spend all that time trying to put together a team to play the passing possession based game and then we bring in a player who played Moyes ball 2. Makes no sense since we havenât got the players to play defensive counter attacking football. We havenât got fast players to spring counter attacks the way Nottingham Forest do.
Well, it would seem we haven’t got the players to suit any style of play. But we hope Nuno, being a coach who has saved both Wolves and Forest from relegation, can instil a much better defensive organisation to our team. Defending set plays would be a good start! Right now we are probably looking no further than climbing up the ladder away from the dreaded drop into the Championship. Next season (yes I know, it’s always next season!) we hopefully attract a striker or two we can afford and build towards the top half of the league or even better. Like Rome, West Ham won’t be built in a day!
The speculation is rubbish. Just another way of justifying the sacking of a good English manager.
Finally Westham have cleared away the steaming turd that stank out the club . There’s a new opportunity for under performing players to up their game . Looking forward to Everton rather than hopeless dread .
I think that we need to go to the origin of the problems with West Ham. Certainly having a classless Owner doesn’t help – but we have seen a spate of bad decisions which have left us in the mire – roughly where Everton were a few seasons back
Certainly Moyes made some poor signings (Vlasic and Aguerd spring to mind) and didn’t use others properly (Thilo Kehrer because he was “too short” to be a centre half) – however he seems to have been denied two signings from Man U (McTominay and Maguire)
While having a Director of Football is a good idea it is not an easy role – and Steidten had too much of an ego for him to succeed in that role
Moyes (and later Potter) referred to the need to have the right characters – and I’m not sure whether Steidten actually looked at that – certainly that could play a role with Todibo and Fullkrug and also perhaps with Alvarez (who seems to have fallen out with many managers including the previous Mexican manager)
It will now take us time to rebuild – hopefully Nuno will be allowed to do that with the support of both the fans and the board
COYI
Who hasnt Todibo out with with?
The big question is what would B.S.have done if forest didn’t sack Nuno. So anyone not happy with his appointment should just think what the alternatives were because under no circumstances were we paying for a manager.
Potter has been used as a sacrificial lamb to appease the collective of fans who are never happy with anything but unless thereâs an immediate turnaround I can only see the protests growing. More so now. I wasnât Protesting against the owners before but now I definitely am.
Nuno EspĂrito Santo prefers a style of play with very low possession and a compact defensive setup. His teams rely heavily on quick counterattacks. This is hardly what you would call champagne football â itâs more a case of âparking the bus.â At the same time, itâs a simple and straightforward system, which makes it relatively easy to implement in a new team. However, many spectators would likely describe the football as rather dull to watch. Graham Potterâs football philosophy, on the other hand, is based on high possession and a fluid, dynamic playing style. When it works, itâs a joy to watch â a game built on movement, creativity, and structure. At Brighton, recruiter Kyle Macaulay, together with owner Tony Bloom, assembled a squad that included players like Alexis Mac Allister, Leandro Trossard, Yves Bissouma, and MoisĂŠs Caicedo â fast, technical, and physically strong players. In other words: tailor-made for Potterâs system. Personally, I think the players Kyle Macaulay has brought into West Ham look promising, although they havenât yet had time to fully settle into the team. Potterâs playing style is entertaining, but it also comes with certain risks â thatâs the price you pay for a fluid and attacking approach. The system also demands committed players who are willing to fully adapt to the tactical framework. I believe Potter may not have inherited the ideal group of players when he took over. From what Iâve seen of David Sullivan, Lady Brady, and Daniel KĹetĂnskĂ˝âs decisions, I would argue that Brightonâs Tony Bloom operates on a completely different level as a businessman. He also appears to have far steadier nerves and doesnât succumb to panic in the way that seems to be happening within West Hamâs leadership right now. Itâs disappointing to see Graham Potter leave. I had really been looking forward to seeing a fired-up West Ham take on Everton.
How long were you prepared to wait? A coach goes to a new club and tries to introduce a different technical playing style. After months of trying and many hours on the training ground it is apparent to everyone else other than said coach, that he does not have a squad suited to his preferred style. Instead of saving that for another day, down the road when he has had time to bring in players he feels are better suited, while in the meantime ensuring he and the club has a future together, he just blindly fumbles along insisting he is right and fighting with anyone, players mostly, who dare to point out it might be wise to change his strategy. I may have missed the attractive football, but I didn’t miss the obvious.
ÂŁ8billion and 300th richest person on the planet, says Daniel KĹetĂnskĂ˝ is the better business man.
So from what I am reading, Potter was yet another manager that would rather see his team lose than find a way to resolve his issues with players. Man management skills are not prevalent in football apparently, but how childish to put personal feelings before the team. As I said before, when a team is playing as West Ham have been, it almost always comes down to unrest in the dressing room.
Tobido and Fulkrerg are the biggest waste of money that the pearl diver left us with.
Over 60 m for the pair.
That sums up the shambles of this club.
They can both do one.
Right decision Potter had to go, glad they have done it before the Everton game.
I have felt there has been problems with certain players
Wan-Bissake and Todbido in particular and Fulkrug has been poor
Hope now we can all get together and the all put their full support behind the new manager and the fans get behind the team
Fresh start (again), will be interesting to see if Nuno can get all these hugely remunerated players motivated again. To be fair to AWB, he was outstanding last season and probably feels he should still be first choice. The other 2 have not lived up to their transfer fees, but then neither have Kilman and JWP and they still get picked. Interesting times ahead.