Extra Ingredient Still Required For Success At West Ham United

This has been an excruciating six months for every fan, player, commentator and observer – the ‘be careful what you wish for’ agitators have absolutely loved watching this coaching catastrophe slowly unfold at West Ham United.

Julen Lopetegui’s era was defined by muddle, poor communication, constant fiddling and changing the team, the formation and the playing style all to little avail. No progress, no uptick in performances. Just muddle and chaos on and off the pitch, together with seemingly endless cricket score thrashings on the pitch.

Player bust ups and latterly, fallings out with senior management at the club presaged the end.

Finally Lopetegui’s era is over. The poor man looked ill for months, and had huge personal burdens to bear whilst carrying out his duties: However poor the performances on the pitch, time to thank him for his efforts  and wish him well. Many of us had seen enough by October to make our verdict on his brand of ‘chaos-ball’ clear.

Whether Graham Potter was everyone’s choice is irrelevant: From the unscientific poll of comments on Claret and Hugh’s blog pages, I’d guess about 90% of West Ham fans would seem to see this as a much needed change and a step forward.

Of course, disconnects and disagreements between the board and the supporters remain, nobody will brush those under the carpet.

But – after such a difficult, divisive time last year, it is surely time now for the players, the management, the new coaching staff, fans, everyone who wants West Ham United to succeed- to come together and be ‘united’ once more behind the new head coach and the team.

Come on you Irons!