West Ham Online

A decent video from The Athletic:- Why does Lopetegui want West Ham? spacer

"""He's never been a long-term manager anywhere"" How many managers ever are these days? His 3+ years at Sevilla is more than most get to do. Fonseca has never spent more than 3 years anywhere. Ancelotti's only spent more than 3 years at one of his 10 clubs. Mourinho managed for maybe a month more in his longest period than Lopetegui did at Sevilla. It's a pretty ridiculous reason to not want a particular manager. Your pool of candidates would be very small."

sbbb You're spot on about a huge rebuild is needed. We need a player in every single position apart from goalkeeper. The squad management has been absolutely dreadful for us to be in this position.

"Indeed Coffee. My biggest concern though regarding Sullivan, who is a known serial liar, is pissing off Lopetegui by bear face lying to him about promises, as Lopetegui has previous for standing by his principles and fucking off. I can definitely picture Sullivan trying it on with bullshitting Lopetegui as he has done with us, Sporting Lisbon or any manager we've had under him he's not kept to his word. Hopefully Lopetegui isn't too hot on his research about our Club under Sullivan himself..."

"Trunds - totally agree, mate. We need a proper, natural leader. Zouma is not a captain - not in the sense that we've been used to recently (having had Nolan, Noble and Rice). Plus, he's often injured and is another player who turns 30 soon (although Zouma's age is not a pressing issue compared with others). Moyes' faults allowed the squad to get old, and a bit shit, together. They ran out of gas and ideas quite early this season (January). There are a lot of older, tired legs in the squad that need replacing. And that's even before we talk about the lack of quality."

Bowen for me.

"Probably not too controversial, but I would be looking for a new captain in the squad. Zouma is just not captain material. Plus he's fucked 99% of the time."

"Genuine question, too... I'm not too happy about Lopetegui, but he's coming here. So, with that in mind, what are the likeliest 'big' changes he will make to the side/style etc. We have a huge number of issues that need addressing and, frankly, it will be impossible for any manager to address them all in one summer. The real demands of the post-Moyes era look like a three/four tranfser window job (two years of summer/winter windows). So, what are ""the"" most pressing needs? We are a fecking tiny and old squad (Fabianski, Ogbonna, Antonio, Cress, Coufal, Ings - all 32+ in next few months) and I do think any incoming manager has to address that alongside the lack of quality in key areas. Seems like a massive rebuild job (which is why I wasn't sure about Lope: he's never been a long-term manager anywhere)."

"Massive Attack 2:52 Wed May 8 Re tools to achieve it. Given what caused him to leave Wolves, I'd imagine transfer budgets are an integral part of whatever agreement is in place between WHU and Lopetegui (got to get used to spelling his name). Also, the importance the owners have given to Tim Steidten suggests that there will be a decent war chest to dip into."

"Massive Attack, I hope you're right. I didn't want Lopetegui, but he's going to be our manager so I'll give him the chance any manager deserves. That said, he has never managed anywhere for more than three years. So the timeframe you're talking about is unlikely. But let's see..."

"If Lopetegui is given 3 years to implement his ideas and methods on the Club and the Board sufficiently back him, I see that much better seriously knocking hard on the Champions League door competing in it just as Villa are currently managing, as well as doing very well in 1 of the Cups. And it will be a much better watch playing attractive Football along the way. That's the level up I want and expect from Lopetegui during that period or damn close to it. My biggest concern is Sullivan giving him the tools in the market to achieve it."

Sullivan’s Razzle Dazzle.?I would say more of a THUD.!

Will we get the new manager bounce?

"Of course it's a low bar, which is why I qualified it by saying the question is how much better. Why worry about Saturday, it's a dead rubber for us?"

"Depends what you mean by worse. Worse league position or worse quality of football? Cast your mind back to the days of Greenwood and Lyall. The football spectacle was a lot better than it is now, but we usually ended up in a dangerously low league position."

"It's an incredibly low bar, Manuel. It's near impossible we could employ someone that makes us worse than we currently are now. I'm fearful of not getting a result against Luton this weekend!"

"Lee - I did, but that was only when I read the comments, watching the vid was all a bit cringe with him grinning throughout. Like I say, I think Lop could be a good pick, and will almost certainly be better than Moyes, just how much better is the question."

"Coffee - Sure, no doubt about that and I am fairly optimistic with Lopetegui (sp). I would put him on another level to Moyes. As for Paqueta, I don't think it matters who the manager is, just think if the bid comes in he goes and I doubt Lop gives a fuck either way, much the same as Big Ange didn't about Kane."

"Coffee - Sure, no doubt about that and I am fairly optimistic with Lopetegui (sp). I would put him on another level to Moyes. As for Paqueta, I don't think it matters who the manager is, just think if the bid comes in he goes and I doubt Lop gives a fuck either way, much the same as Big Ange didn't about Kane."

"Manuel 1:26 Wed May 8 True, Manuel, but as Massive Attack said, the fellow does know his onions when it comes to Spanish managers. Separately, does anyone think this appointment might influence whether or not Paqueta stays at West Ham?"

So Balague basically confirming everything I already knew about Lopetegui or the research I'd genned up on. Balague knows his shit when it comes to Spanish managers.

"You were liking what Balange was saying about his dear old mate yesterday! ;-) It does seem like he's going balls out for him in a big way, though."

"Coffee - I watched that, it was OK but very biased as they are good friends. He kept bigging him up about how wonderful he is and how he's full of such integrity etc, sounded like he was talking about the pope, not a football manager."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R16YPCRx6c Here's another video with Spanish journalist Guillem Balange with some interesting insights into our new boss.

"Trunds, West Ham have never got into the CL, so knocking a bloke who feels his ideas and ambitions belong in the CL and has in the past managed to get his teams to qualify for the CL is surely not a bad thing?"

"Yep and the important context there being he has never qualified himself for the Champions League and hung on the coat tails of Fergusons Man Utd side that boasted the likes of Rooney, Carrick, Vidic, De Gea, Evra, Hernandez. Lopetegui never had such luxury doing it with more unfashionable sides. But other than that, identical records.."