While most were either back-slapping Nuno Espirito Santo for landing the West Ham job or commiserating with Graham Potter for losing it, a subtle dig from a former Hammer may have slipped under the radar.
As West Ham announced Potter’s sacking on Instagram, a player the outgoing boss clearly didn’t fancy appeared to give the news a thumbs up. Ouch.
Emerson appeared to like the news that Potter had been booted out of West Ham
The player in question was Emerson, who never enjoyed the best relationship with Potter. Not only was the Italian full-back the first to be pushed out during the summer transfer window, but he was very much an afterthought throughout last season.
Emerson was also reported as being dropped to train with the u21’s following repeatedly showing up for training late.
Ollie Scarles, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and even Vladimir Coufal were all preferred ahead of Emerson under Potter, so it’s hardly surprising he found his final months at the club less than enjoyable.
Since leaving, Emerson has been joined at Marseille by fellow Hammer Nayef Aguerd, and both have flourished in France – surely another factor in Potter’s downfall.
I’m not sure about this “late for training story” – last year the official site kept showing us Emerson, Paqeta and Guillherme arriving for training together – so were the other two also late?
Seems like you can’t blame Potter for discarding Emerson. He wasn’t that good anymore and if he was turning up late to training then that’s a discipline problem. Or dissent. Aguerd, Tobido, Alvarez and others had issues too. If players are unprofessional, especially considering how much money they are paid, then they are not what we need at the club. I hope Nuno clamps down on this kind of behaviour. Hopefully he will get a bit more respect than the previous couple of head coaches.
So often players flourish after leaving Westham which begs the question why ? Too many cheap , previously sacked coaches perhaps . There’s hope for Nuno since his sacking wasn’t performance related .
More evidence that Potter’s biggest flaw was putting his personal feelings before the club, similar to Lopetegui. As a man manager you have to find a way to resolve differences and put the company/club first. Of course, if he was constantly late for training there has to be a pre-determined rule that dictates a fair response, and it should be public knowledge. If multiple players were breaking the rules, then nobody (including Bowen) was doing their job right.
Potter came to us as a failure at Chelsea, Nuno comes to us as a success who fell out with the owner at Nottingham Forest.
There’s a huge difference in that which includes fell out with the owner is something that should not be overlooked.
Two seventh place finishes at Wolves and another one at Forest isn’t bad at all considering the clubs. I think he’s as good as you can hope for when not buying a manager out of a contract.