As one would expect, West Ham have done all they can to downplay reports of a rift between winger Mohammed Kudus and head coach Julen Lopetegui.
Claret & Hugh spoke directly to the club this morning, who were keen to stress that the reported row had been blown out of proportion. In fact, the Hammers have been doing everything within their power to limit the damage caused by yesterday’s revelations that the manager and player had to be ‘separated’ following an angry exchange.
Today has seen attempts to calm the situation in the public domain, and one can only hope that the same is happening at the training ground. Whilst I don’t blame the club at all for attempting to control and steer the narrative into something more positive, it will probably take Mohammed Kudus being selected to start the Premier League game against Ipswich on Saturday to truly settle the matter.
In many respects, the West Ham boss has little choice in this matter. Even if there genuinely was no conflict between the pair, if he believed there was a better option than Kudus to start the game, there is no way Lopetegui could leave him out of the starting line-up.
Anything other than the Ghanaian appearing as the first name on the team sheet is going to create a media storm that will be completely unhealthy for West Ham. So let’s just hope the pair have genuinely patched up their differences, but the proof of the pudding will have to wait until the weekend.
I fear it’s always going to be this way now in the world of West Ham. So many commentators, pundits, fansites, you tube channels, radio channels, social media, ITKs and all of them looking for the breaking news, the next juicy bit of gossip. All of them thinking they could run the club better, or pick the best team etc. All thinking they know better than the manager who can please few people because everyone wants something different. it seems very hard for any manager to last for any period of time in the job these days. Attention spans have shortened with each new generation. Expectations have risen. Patience has shortened. We will never see the days of managers like Lyall or Greenwood ever again when West Ham had so few managers in their history at that time. You would think Lopetegui had been our manager for five years instead of five games but no, many are already fed up with him and want him out. Shocking really if it wasn’t true.
It is not true, what is true is that many did not want him in the first place because they had either had previous experience, or they had read his resume. Perhaps the rest just tried to follow his logic but couldn’t. There is no comparison between Lopetegui and the likes of Greenwood and Lyall, they were definitely from another era, you are right about that.
No point trying to talk sense on this forum ⚒
JLo can be at loggerheads with some players but not Kudus.
He could be his saviour.
Play him in middle of the park and reap the benefits.
His roving and speed are a great asset.
He does sometimes take on one too many tackles.
One worrying Statistic about J-Lo is that in his 27 games with Wolves they only scored 28 goals – the best we can look forward to seems to be “One-nil to the Cockney Boys”
To be fair, Wolves were relegation fodder when he took that job.
On the back of the tail end of last season, so we’re we.
Give him time to bed his players in, yes they’re professionals, yes they get paid well.
Arteta’s first 2 seasons at Arsenal saw them finish 8th with fans calling for his head.
Fergie took 4 years (I think) before he won anything with Man United.
I’m happy for a manager who commands respect from his players.
Also happy for players to be passionate and want to play and win.
Check progress at Christmas, if we’re not in a relegation fight, don’t panic.
Reserve judgement for the end of the season.
We’ve 2 forwards in Ings and Antonio who are running down their contracts.
2 players in Kudus and Paquetta who are highly unlikely to be here next season.
I’m guessing that this is probably in the managers thoughts as he tries to build his team.
Interesting, this is a massive issue, Someone was subbed off at half time , shock , horror..
To he thing with Kudos is that he hasn’t been performing at all, neither has pacqueta, neither has Bowen, neither has any forward.
Release clauses at 85m, that kind of money has gone with FFS, also who would pay that for either of them looking at form since Xmas. So release clauses aren’t a worry…
Pacqueta more likely on a life ban before that….