Potter Out

[THUNDERCLINT]

Had enough of this arogrant no mark now.  

11 games, 27% win ratio and 0.66 goals per game.

Either the break clause is true or this flake quits otherwise were proper fucked.

[Takashi Miike]

Massive…

Just shows how many sub-intellects there are in and around football in UK…

He Is a boring mediocre midlander that spouts repetitive word salad in a soporific drone…with as much energy on match days on the sidelines as a dead fish…

I blame Sullivan and Brady for hiring him…

5 million a year plus long contract…ridiculous…

3 wins out of 13 with minimal goals…lowest goal attempts and mismanagement of line ups and subs is pathetic…

Poor man’s Southgate…

Never rated him…



 

I agree with most of that, but that's an insult to Southgate, and I didn't/don't like him either

[MaryMillingtonsGhost]

Want him gone now but, with Sullivan and Brady involved they will only find us yet another useless cսnt. Potter is a symptom of the Sullivan, anti-football disease he has inflicted on our club from the outset.
All I want is to watch some entertaining football. Potter had the tools to do that and had a free hit this year, but proved totally incapable of doing anything but "shoring up the defence". Well done, however the results are actually worse than when we leaked like a sieve because we score so few goals!
Much more than wanting Potter to go I would dearly love to see Sullivan and Brady leave but, sadly that won't happen. 

 

 

 

 

This.
100% this.

[Tomsdad]

Ex-Chelsea.

When will we learn!

[Texas Iron]

Massive…

Just shows how many sub-intellects there are in and around football in UK…

He Is a boring mediocre midlander that spouts repetitive word salad in a soporific drone…with as much energy on match days on the sidelines as a dead fish…

I blame Sullivan and Brady for hiring him…

5 million a year plus long contract…ridiculous…

3 wins out of 13 with minimal goals…lowest goal attempts and mismanagement of line ups and subs is pathetic…

Poor man’s Southgate…

Never rated him…


 

[Massive Attack]

I'm struggling to understand the apathy towards what we're seeing. I think it's because most are so focused on Sullivan (rightly so) that they're choosing to ignore (or absolve blame for) the shockingly poor performance of the manager.

He's just one of these sickly Teflon characters that talks a great game which seems to hypnotise everyone in to believing he can do no wrong and is in fact a masterful manager with a great track record. However once you do manage to break away from his hypnotic spell and see the reality, you'll then soon realise the bloke is absolutely stealing a living at the top level and on amazing money for the privilege too. Potter has managed to cast a great spell on everyone by way of his M & S makeover and smooth talking that everyone from the Media, Boardroom, Player's and Fans wanted to hear about how great the Club, Fans and his management is that even Harry Potter would be proud of.

[stubbo]

That's the huge issue for me, Stubbo, we have some outrageous talent in that squad, most of the team in the league would kill to have some of our players.

The biggest clue is Bowen. Yes he scored the other day, but let's not pretend he played well. He has been shocking since Potter came in, but he's getting away with it because of his past with us, rightly so, but it doesn't change the reality of his current form.

I'm struggling to understand the apathy towards what we're seeing. I think it's because most are so focused on Sullivan (rightly so) that they're choosing to ignore (or absolve blame for) the shockingly poor performance of the manager.

I think the apathy is driven by the inability to effect any real change.  The root cause is the leadership of the Club, not the first team.  

The fanbase as a whole is essentially in a state of surrender where Sullivan is concerned having been abused en masse....suspect most are awaiting his earthly departure, and see that as a more viable route to change than any kind of protest now.

And lets face it, while he remains, his track record of managerial hires is such we know we'll only ever get the dregs.  This has been evidenced throughout his time at West Ham, and at Birmingham before here.

Sullivan is a huge problem.  The rest of the board that seemingly don't recognise it (or are happy to go along with it) are also an equally big problem.

But once he decided that Steidten, and that whole model of having a Director of Football, was a bust....we were doomed.  We're back in the cycle of 'new manager, change everything'.  No sustainability, no succession planning, lurching from one approach to the next, relentless need for large squad churn, and a managerial and signings focus on short term results only.

The apathy is inevitable as there is simply not vision for the club to support.  Potter is simply a symptom of this...you can be angry about his under performance, or frustrated, or annoyed. But it's inevitable....he wasn't hired with any startegic thinking.  He wasn't identified as 'who we want'...just 'who we can get'. 

It's fair to say at this point that Lopetegui was actually doing a better job than Potter was....and we weren't wrong to recognise he was hopeless too.  But why be surprised by that....Lopetegui's career is far more 'stellar' than Potter.

We're broken.  Changing manager is papering over the cracks (ineffectively).  And we can't even do that well.  Sullivan has systematically dismantled the passion within the fanbase....the stadium move, the self interest, the pandering to tourists over historical fan base, the Brady-fication of the non-playing side of the club, and now the Brady-fication of the playing side of the club.

Our best and only hope of delivery from the state we're in is Sullivan's departure from West Ham by whatever means makes it happen first.  At that point, even if it passes to his Son's, there will at least be a hope they can be influenced to be different.

[Eerie Decent]

That's the huge issue for me, Stubbo, we have some outrageous talent in that squad, most of the team in the league would kill to have some of our players.

The biggest clue is Bowen. Yes he scored the other day, but let's not pretend he played well. He has been shocking since Potter came in, but he's getting away with it because of his past with us, rightly so, but it doesn't change the reality of his current form.

I'm struggling to understand the apathy towards what we're seeing. I think it's because most are so focused on Sullivan (rightly so) that they're choosing to ignore (or absolve blame for) the shockingly poor performance of the manager.

[stubbo]

I think at this point, there are few things we need to be sensible about.

1. Whoever is in charge needs to set us up to play in a way that gets our best players playing well, and makes them effecrtive even when not playing well.
   
   Basically a Strengths and Weaknesses assessment...and if that means with the squad we have we should be playing counter-attack then so be it.
2. Realistically, we can't expect to either sell all our best players and replace them with unproven yound players, and get better.  Nor can we realitically expect to change 6 or 7 first team starters, and have a good season...the hit rate for new signings into the Premier League simply isn't good enough to make this viable.

So what does that mean.  It's on Potter to properly have assessed our squad and found a way of playing that gets the best out of Bowen, Kudus, Paqueta, Fullkrug (when fit), Alvarez, Todibo, Wan Bissaka, and maybe Kilman.  You'd say that on balance they are our 'best' players.

Even when we were in the death throes of the Moyes reign, we still looked like (and were) scoring goals....and that's because we had players that thrived in counter attacking situations, and when we weren't being pumped by poor defending, we were still dangerous in transition.  We showed the same against Southampton with our very well worked goal being straight out of the Moyes playbook...Paqueta playing the long quarterback style pass from deep, working the ball down the left, and then feeding Bowen moving in from the right into a one-on-one, cutting inside and scoring.

At this point, IMO, Potter has no excuse for having failed to work all this out.  He's had time with the whole squad, he's had time to study us pre-arrival, and he's still not effectively engineering the situations that make us dangerous.

We're not a club that can afford to appoint a manager, set a bin fire to all the best current players in the squad because they don't fit the incoming vision, and go build from scratch.  We have some excellent players if put in the situations they thrive in, and it's up to the manager to work out how to create those situations consistently, whilst not being on the receiving end of a shellacking when out of possession.

As far as I can see, he's failed miserably in doing this so far.  Maybe he will jettison half the squad and turn us from a Caterpillar into a Butterfly...but at this point I don't see it.  If we lose Paqueta, Kudus, Alvarez, Todibo....it's HIGHLY unlikely we'll sign players of equivalent talent.  The crime right now is the way we're setting up, we're making these excellent players look like total bums....which they're not.

[Eerie Decent]

So if he has these players underperforming, including Bowen who has a first class attitude, what makes you think that will change next season?

His team's have always been shot shy, that's always been the criticism of him, and by fuck, have we seen that play out.

Still, regardless, you'll get your wish, he'll be here next season. I hope to fuck I'm wrong, nothing I'd love more than for us to be a good team with an English manager. Fingers crossed (because it's definitely in hope rather than from a single thing we've seen from him).

[Russ of the BML]

Potter was determined to get in 1 of his old player's Ferguson in a transfer window and he then proceeds to barely play him even though Ferguson had only missed the 1st game against Chelsea. People will use the excuse of him having an injury before he arrived, however as soon as he went on International duty with Ireland, he starts, scores a great goal and completes 75 minutes in a win for Ireland. He then returns to our bench with Potter continuing to fail to integrate him in to the side, let alone scoring and playing well for us although managed it on International duty. Doesn't say much about his management to waste the opportunity of such a good young talent as Ferguson is.

Trust him further in the transfer market when it was him that shockingly brought Mudryk to Chelsea for a ridiculous amount of money only to fail so spectacularly? I don't share others optimism they may have in him. 

 

He didn’t buy Mudryk you dumb arse, players were bought for him to coach. 

you know nothing spurs cսnt 

Well, that's fine, but Brazil's playmaker has been generally shit. £100m, worth of centre backs who Potter never bought and who we all know we well over paid for and are average. AWB been decent. Bowen OK in fits and starts. Kudus has been generally shit. 

So what's your point? Your using players that we have all said are well under par this season as a stick to hit Potter with. Really? 

And what excuses am I making for him? I have said it's not been good enough, been disappointing and Potter hasn't done well. All I have done is proposed the facts that are the reality. He inherited a mess. You know that. I am not excusing his performance just pointing out the challenges faced in a balanced way. 

Just because I don't want Potter hung in the street, it doesn't mean its pathetic. Get a grip. 

[Russ of the BML]

Would you give him a contract, had he come in and initially only signed as a caretaker for the rest of the season?

I reckon this is the worst case of a new manager going into a club in mid season. I can't think of anyone who has taken a club relatively comfortable in mid table, and turned them into a team on par with some of the worst the Premier League has ever seen.

I'm absolutely baffled by those shrugging their shoulders, and saying 'ah, give him the summer, he deserves it'
He has been fucking abysmal. I'm stunned he has so many backers.

He has come in mid-season to a squad that is aging, unbalanced, no recognised striker, lots of injuries, no legs in midfield, players woefully out of form and confidence in the gutter. 

Yes, performances and results have not been good enough, but the reality of it is that he has inherited a mess. A huge fucking mess. 

The situation wasn't as disastrous as being made out. I'd reserve that thinking for the likes of the current bottom 3 when he took over. With many at the time still thinking we could finish in the top 10 come the end of the season with possibly a Cup run too only being 5 points from 10th place Brighton. He came in to the Club with the Team in 14th comfortably away from the relegation zone and able to have a good go in the FA Cup without any pressure whatsoever to do anything remarkable with no real danger of going down thanks to how shocking the bottom 3 teams have been. He's also had a decent selection of talent to choose from with the added bonus of recalling Ward-Prowse and new loanee signing he used to work with in Ferguson. He also came in to the Club with many blowing smoke up his arse with little pressure.

What's since transpired though is we are now just above the relegation zone having also been knocked out of the Cup at the 1st time of asking, with just 3 wins from 13 League matches that included against the pitiful Leicester City and an unconvincing win against Fulham. The Arsenal game was the only real quality performance and result he's managed to achieve after 14 games now with many player's available to him in more recent times. The last time we won a game was 7 matches ago against Leicester at Home whilst mostly playing cowardly overly cautious Football over the course of his 14 games in charge overall. 

The players too all welcomed him with open arms when he walked through the door all eager to impress and yet the longer he's managed them, the worse and disinterested they appear to be. 

If this is what he's like managing us with zero pressure on him on a cushy long contract, then God help us when he does come under real pressure...

Drawing at Home to one of the worst Premier League sides ever that's already relegated, whilst conceding more chances to Southampton is a terrible look. And it gets worse when he cannot control 1 of his senior player's from gobbing off to the Media about how poorly we are playing against such opposition, as well as cutting another major International signing completely out the picture in Alvarez makes him look way out of his depth. 

 

 

I appreciate the long detailed response.

But what is your point?

When I said it hasn't been good enough or acceptable, I know the reasons why. You are trying to make a point that I am aware of. I haven't said Potter is doing well. 

[scott_d]

Potter won't be sacked any time soon.

We are better off accepting it and hoping he for a successful transfer window.

[Stuart The Slater]

Maybe replace sulli with an American consortium and a NFL coach to run things then people will be happy for 5 minutes

[Adsiron]

There are only 2 British PL managers and only one of those is in the top 6.

That's a 5% success rate with British managers...

[Manuel]

Potter should never have been given a shot at managing West Ham if we truly had ambition. His PL record is mediocre. At Brighton 15th; 16th; & 9th. Sacked by Chelsea for an 11th place first season finish.

So why was a manager appointed who's highest finish in 4 seasons at PL level was 9th?

We all know that it was because he was compensation free and has not been relegated before. That's the level of Sullivan and Brady's ambitions. As much as I love WHU I've decided that m not spending any more money supporting them until that toxic duo are out of the club.   


 

Another probable reason is because he is British, these owners have never had much luck with foreigners. Bilic did OK, but he has a prior association with us.

[Adsiron]

Potter should never have been given a shot at managing West Ham if we truly had ambition. His PL record is mediocre. At Brighton 15th; 16th; & 9th. Sacked by Chelsea for an 11th place first season finish.

So why was a manager appointed who's highest finish in 4 seasons at PL level was 9th?

We all know that it was because he was compensation free and has not been relegated before. That's the level of Sullivan and Brady's ambitions. As much as I love WHU I've decided that m not spending any more money supporting them until that toxic duo are out of the club.   
 

[goose]

Wasn't there talk of him at one time being the next England manager?
Now that l don't understand,but im prepared to give him next season to turn things around.....oh im sorry I'm being too optimistic again and now going to upset goose,Eerie,Talkingshite ...the happy chappies

There’s a lot you don’t understand joyo son.

You’re not optimistic, just mildly retarded.

[Manuel]

500 Potter out's.

[ATHammer]

Want him gone now but, with Sullivan and Brady involved they will only find us yet another useless cսnt. Potter is a symptom of the Sullivan, anti-football disease he has inflicted on our club from the outset.
All I want is to watch some entertaining football. Potter had the tools to do that and had a free hit this year, but proved totally incapable of doing anything but "shoring up the defence". Well done, however the results are actually worse than when we leaked like a sieve because we score so few goals!
Much more than wanting Potter to go I would dearly love to see Sullivan and Brady leave but, sadly that won't happen. 

[Massive Attack]

Considering who is available right now and the need for some stability, I'd keep him and see how the summer goes.  But he has to hit the ground running in the new season.

As some have said, his selections have been a bit worrying.  He played some of the kids in the earlier games when we arguably needed to pick up points to ensure safety, but we have reached a point where Guido Rodiriguez makes the bench when it's abundantly clear he's gone in the summer, probably same for Creswell.

This isn't just a Potter thing though.  We've had so many nothing seasons in the last 20 years where we are safe from relegation with nothing left to play for in the final run-in and for me, this is always the perfect chance to give a few youngsters an opportunity with a little less pressure.

But we never do it.  Not under any recent manager.









 

Would you give him a contract, had he come in and initially only signed as a caretaker for the rest of the season?

I reckon this is the worst case of a new manager going into a club in mid season. I can't think of anyone who has taken a club relatively comfortable in mid table, and turned them into a team on par with some of the worst the Premier League has ever seen.

I'm absolutely baffled by those shrugging their shoulders, and saying 'ah, give him the summer, he deserves it'
He has been fucking abysmal. I'm stunned he has so many backers.

He has come in mid-season to a squad that is aging, unbalanced, no recognised striker, lots of injuries, no legs in midfield, players woefully out of form and confidence in the gutter. 

Yes, performances and results have not been good enough, but the reality of it is that he has inherited a mess. A huge fucking mess. 

The situation wasn't as disastrous as being made out. I'd reserve that thinking for the likes of the current bottom 3 when he took over. With many at the time still thinking we could finish in the top 10 come the end of the season with possibly a Cup run too only being 5 points from 10th place Brighton. He came in to the Club with the Team in 14th comfortably away from the relegation zone and able to have a good go in the FA Cup without any pressure whatsoever to do anything remarkable with no real danger of going down thanks to how shocking the bottom 3 teams have been. He's also had a decent selection of talent to choose from with the added bonus of recalling Ward-Prowse and new loanee signing he used to work with in Ferguson. He also came in to the Club with many blowing smoke up his arse with little pressure.

What's since transpired though is we are now just above the relegation zone having also been knocked out of the Cup at the 1st time of asking, with just 3 wins from 13 League matches that included against the pitiful Leicester City and an unconvincing win against Fulham. The Arsenal game was the only real quality performance and result he's managed to achieve after 14 games now with many player's available to him in more recent times. The last time we won a game was 7 matches ago against Leicester at Home whilst mostly playing cowardly overly cautious Football over the course of his 14 games in charge overall. 

The players too all welcomed him with open arms when he walked through the door all eager to impress and yet the longer he's managed them, the worse and disinterested they appear to be. 

If this is what he's like managing us with zero pressure on him on a cushy long contract, then God help us when he does come under real pressure...

Drawing at Home to one of the worst Premier League sides ever that's already relegated, whilst conceding more chances to Southampton is a terrible look. And it gets worse when he cannot control 1 of his senior player's from gobbing off to the Media about how poorly we are playing against such opposition, as well as cutting another major International signing completely out the picture in Alvarez makes him look way out of his depth. 

[Sir Alf]

Fair play Eusebiovic, you’re a classy operator compared to me.  That said, Estella in large wuantoties invokes a “flock of sparrows” down below for me. Well, thinking about it, a lot of food and drink has that effect these days.

( **** refastens “male depends” shorts *** )

[eusebiovic]

As soon as relegation odds for next season get released, lump on West Ham. It might ease the pain a little or simply allow the winnings to be spent on several crates of Carlsberg Special Brew for match days because being pissed out of yer mind is about the only thing that might make it watchable. And thinking about it, will show solidarity with the players who seem to look pissed most games these days

I'll be spending it on Estrella Galicia if It's all the same to you!

[Sir Alf]

As soon as relegation odds for next season get released, lump on West Ham. It might ease the pain a little or simply allow the winnings to be spent on several crates of Carlsberg Special Brew for match days because being pissed out of yer mind is about the only thing that might make it watchable. And thinking about it, will show solidarity with the players who seem to look pissed most games these days

[Eerie Decent]

Considering who is available right now and the need for some stability, I'd keep him and see how the summer goes.  But he has to hit the ground running in the new season.

As some have said, his selections have been a bit worrying.  He played some of the kids in the earlier games when we arguably needed to pick up points to ensure safety, but we have reached a point where Guido Rodiriguez makes the bench when it's abundantly clear he's gone in the summer, probably same for Creswell.

This isn't just a Potter thing though.  We've had so many nothing seasons in the last 20 years where we are safe from relegation with nothing left to play for in the final run-in and for me, this is always the perfect chance to give a few youngsters an opportunity with a little less pressure.

But we never do it.  Not under any recent manager.






 

Would you give him a contract, had he come in and initially only signed as a caretaker for the rest of the season?

I reckon this is the worst case of a new manager going into a club in mid season. I can't think of anyone who has taken a club relatively comfortable in mid table, and turned them into a team on par with some of the worst the Premier League has ever seen.

I'm absolutely baffled by those shrugging their shoulders, and saying 'ah, give him the summer, he deserves it'
He has been fucking abysmal. I'm stunned he has so many backers.

I think you are making this way too 'black and white'. 

Many supporters, including myself, whilst stating that Potter deserves a transfer window, a pre-season and an opportunity next season do so simply because he hasn't yet been afforded that. He has come in mid-season to a squad that is aging, unbalanced, no recognised striker, lots of injuries, no legs in midfield, players woefully out of form and confidence in the gutter. 

Yes, performances and results have not been good enough, but the reality of it is that he has inherited a mess. A huge fucking mess. 

After Soton game, I stated that I think he deserved a summer window, pre-season and a good run of games next season, but did so clinging on to that with my nails. Because I am not convinced by him yet. I think he has improved us defensively, but we were so bad under Lope that that's not much testament to him. We look more competitive for longer spells in games. But we are just toothless and bland going forward and its not clicking. 

So whilst I think he deserves to continue into next season, I am not 100% backing him. And I will say, I don't think he has earnt it. It's just that the reality of employing a bloke, then sacking him before he has a window and a pre-season, just seems, well, a bit daft. It's just basket case stuff. We're not going down, so give him a chance to see what he can do with more time, a window and a pre-season. 

You don't have to make this the 'Cult of Potter' versus the 'Potter Outers'. We did all that with Moyes and its very draining. It's a lot more nuanced and complex than putting yourself into an 'in' or 'out' camp. 

 

 

You're right, I do see this very much as black & white.

He inherited a squad that was 13th in the Prem, has Brazil's playmaker with 55 caps in it, Mexico's captain, £100mil worth of centre backs (whether we think they're shit or not) AWB who everyone thinks should start for England, Bowen who has recently started for England who will go down as a legend, Kudus who we know is genuinely different class.

I'm not saying there are not problems, but he has the players in the squad not to be one of the worst teams in Premier League history. Because that is who we are matching up with since he came in, we just got outplayed by statistically the joint worst ever. It's his fucking job to make us better, he's made us so much worse than we were when the previous manager got sacked, THAT is the problem.

The raft of excuses you are making for a bloke earning millions a year to do is job is pathetic. You, and others, refuse to answer how the Wolves manager can go into there, and they were fucking miles worse than us at the time with all sorts of problems, and they are now miles better than us. What's happened there, Russ? Why can that unknown geezer take over a shitter squad than ours, and make them better than us?

[Maverick180180]

Potter was determined to get in 1 of his old player's Ferguson in a transfer window and he then proceeds to barely play him even though Ferguson had only missed the 1st game against Chelsea. People will use the excuse of him having an injury before he arrived, however as soon as he went on International duty with Ireland, he starts, scores a great goal and completes 75 minutes in a win for Ireland. He then returns to our bench with Potter continuing to fail to integrate him in to the side, let alone scoring and playing well for us although managed it on International duty. Doesn't say much about his management to waste the opportunity of such a good young talent as Ferguson is.

Trust him further in the transfer market when it was him that shockingly brought Mudryk to Chelsea for a ridiculous amount of money only to fail so spectacularly? I don't share others optimism they may have in him. 

 

He didn’t buy Mudryk you dumb arse, players were bought for him to coach. 

you know nothing spurs cսnt