With patience running thin at West Ham United with former manager Julen Lopetegui, our board acted pretty quickly to dispense with his services in the New Year and we saw the arrival of former Chelsea and Brighton and Hove Albion gaffer Graham Potter.
The 49 year old’s spell at Stamford Bridge was not exactly a shining success, but his work at the Amex Stadium cannot be disputed and Hammers fans were pretty hopeful again when it came to what the future would hold for us, although obviously the former professional left back would need some time to turn things around and this campaign would largely be a write off as a result.
With us now on the cusp of the end of the 2024/25 campaign, he has been reflecting on his decision to make the move to the London Stadium, and also his ambitions and hopes for the future, and Potter told the Seaman Says podcast, sponsored by Betway, that although he appreciates that it will take some time to get the club ‘aligned’ as he sees fit, he remains very optimistic about what the future could hold for us, and he definitely has his eye on more European football.
Whilst Potter’s start to life at the club has been mixed to say the least with only three wins so far from his opening 12 games, he does not seem to have many problems with the squad of players that he has inherited as he is pleased with the experience that we boast – his main issue is in getting them to play consistently to their full potential and in the style of play that he feels we will thrive under once we master it.
He also tellingly said that in order to get players to their ‘highest level’ there needs to be the right atmosphere at the club so players are naturally motivated to be their best each and every day, and he namechecks James Ward-Prowse as being one of the players that will prove to be key to achieving that given the way he behaves and his own professionalism.
He was also pretty clear that whilst he felt we needed to get back to a much better development pathway for the clubs’ Academy, he was adamant that he did not see us as being a development club – he knows that the core reason for being is getting West Ham back to being a club that consistently and regularly wins. There just has to be a balance for our longer term financial aims and health.
A thread running through his interview is ‘long term aims’ and ambitions for the foreseeable future as well as the years to come, and for him that means the 2024/25 campaign has become an assessment period for him so he can better plan for what we want (and need) to achieve over the summer to put us in the best place possible for the start of his first full season in charge.
However, that does not mean that he is not determined to end this year as strongly as we can so that there is a more internal belief of really pushing on next season.
We shall see what happens but he is certainly saying all of the right things when it comes to being aligned for a shared goal.
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