Lopetegui (sacked 8.1.2025)

[maverick180]

I was thoroughly looking forward to the start of this season

Was also prepared that things might take some time and wasn't expecting miracles over night What I didn't expect was a manager who after spending 6 weeks with the total dross he'd been left by Moyes would deem them fit to start in a premier league game And low and behold all of them played absolute shit

We're now 1 game in and none of our new players are any closer to bedding in or learning anything from their new team mates cos they barely spent a second on the pitch, half of them not at all I think it's gonna take somewhere between 6-10 games before we see the team anyone with an ounce of sense would play cos this bloke can't identify shit when he see's it I thought we was handed a miracle at half time when we went in level and low and behold he changed nothing I'm sure people are gonna make excuses for him and say it's too early to judge

But from what I've just seen today, this cսnt is David Moyes in a mission impossible mask

[Jean-Luc Paul Goddard]

Whichever of them decided on bringing in Fullkrug, it did make sense. Lopetegui is a manager who traditionally likes to create chances via crosses. Fullkrug is a player who thrives on crosses. Should have been a good match. The issue was not having anyone to actually provide those crosses. All our wide players want to cut in and shoot and our full backs either can't do it (Emerson, AWB) or are simply past it (Cresswell and Coufal). Player signings have to be looked at holistically to make sure they fit the rest of the team and this obviously hasn't been the case, although perhaps Lopetegui and Steidten planned to bring in an attacking right back before Sullivan "gifted" them AWB.

[southbankbornnbred]

Fair point: wonder what Lope will say when the dust settles on all of this?

Genuinely, if he had no input whatsoever on major signings then either that system is never going to work to the benefit of the team - or Lope was too hands-off when perhaps he could have been a bit more vocal (like Moyes).

[Massive Attack]

We'll just have to wait and see what's said after all the fall-out. 

One thing's for sure, Steidten didn't do his due diligence on Fullkrugs medical history, or worse pushed it through regardless knowing his body consists of the structural integrity of a Pretzel..

[southbankbornnbred]

For example, I just don't buy the idea that Lopetegui had no input whatsoever over the Fullkrug deal.

It's just not likely that a former manager of Spain would not be asked about whether he backed the signing of a German international centre forward at the club he's managing. Sure, Steidten probably identified him and led the discussions - that's the role. But at some point Lopetegui must have been consulted and must have been OK with it. If he wasn't, then he's a complete fool, as well as a poor manager, and deserved what followed.

[southbankbornnbred]

Southbank

Guilherme was Steidtens. He only spent £40M on Kilman.

Steidtens signings thus far come to a total of £179M..


Mavropanos - £19M
Todibo - £34M
Alvarez - £35M
Guilherme - £25.5M
Kudus - £38M
Fullkrug - £27.5M

 

Sorry, Massive, but this is probably where we part ways a bit. I don't buy the 'these players were Lope and these players were Steidten' thing. To me, it's just puffwaffle. There HAS to be some co-ordination between manager and technical director. If there isn't, then more fool the manager and that bodes even less well for Lopetegui's legacy. It makes him less of a manager even than I thought (if that's the case).

Don't take a top-level job and have a shitkicker director with almost no playing or management background tell you who you're signing, regardless. Potter will want more input on players, I'm sure. As Moyes did. Moyes vetoed several of Steidten's suggestions, famously. It can, and should, be done.

[Massive Attack]

It will be interesting to see what business we do in January. As others have said, likely cheap loan punts on championship players or out-of-contract types. If that happens, it wouldn't shock me if Steidten walks after the window. I don't get the sense he's had a fair shake at his task.

Alvarez, Mavropanos, Todibo, Kudus, Fullkrug, Guilherme are all him and spent an absolute fortune to get them. How much did that little lot cost at not having a fair shake of it?

 

It's more the sense that he's had to compromise his top targets every step of the way, whether managers or players. I don't believe Fullkrug was his first choice nor Lopetegui nor Potter. I understand that you don't get everything you want just because you are technical director, but being overruled on manager seems like a pretty big piece of the puzzle. Maybe I'm just too jaded having seen this pattern play out over and over for a decade and a half, and it's really Steidten's fault currently.

They're all his signings and extremely expensive ones at that altogether. He has to live or die by them.

[BBondsBootlaces]

He had to go but from the outside this looks to have been handled very poorly. Lop recently lost his Father as well.

best of luck to him.

[stubbo]

Todibo  --> isn't he a loan? 

 

I was just about to say unless we can cancel the original loan deal to buy him for £34M once he met easily achievable criteria. People were saying it's already been achieved but nothing confirmed just yet. 

The final condition is we don't get relegated. Believe it was five appearances and we dont get relegated.

[threesixty]

My big hope (and given his interview) is he does what Eddie Howe did with Newcastle.
Howe had a lot of time out, had failed in his last season at Bournemouth. But he is a proper "coach" interested in making individuals perform better, from a physical and mental point of view. He is not stand off or just a high level tactical guy. Potter seems to be of that mould.

Howe transformed a terrible Newcastle side with I think just 1 signing (Trippier?). Changed JoelLintons position etc.. and got them performing when everyone thought all their players were shit. Steve Bruce as a manager looked terrible considering what Howe did with the same players.

So I'd have some of that right now. Maybe this is exactly what we need? Potter even talks about himself as a coach, not a manager.

My guess with a lot of continental managers is that things like basic technique, passing and awareness of basic football stuff in a possession based system is bread and butter for all players they work with. I remember seeing some Italian football training thing on telly once, where brit players had to try and get in there team. The Italians were on another level football wise at a young age. Maybe thats changed over here now as this was a while back. 

But my point is, Loppy comes in with all this high level tactical shit and expects everyone to just do it. Not thinking you need to assess the capability first and then work out how to implement it through coaching. I think thats a must in this league. A league where, lets face it, most players are brought in for their power and athleticism, football brain is a distant second.

[kylay]

It will be interesting to see what business we do in January. As others have said, likely cheap loan punts on championship players or out-of-contract types. If that happens, it wouldn't shock me if Steidten walks after the window. I don't get the sense he's had a fair shake at his task.

Alvarez, Mavropanos, Todibo, Kudus, Fullkrug, Guilherme are all him and spent an absolute fortune to get them. How much did that little lot cost at not having a fair shake of it?

 

 

It's more the sense that he's had to compromise his top targets every step of the way, whether managers or players. I don't believe Fullkrug was his first choice nor Lopetegui nor Potter. I understand that you don't get everything you want just because you are technical director, but being overruled on manager seems like a pretty big piece of the puzzle. Maybe I'm just too jaded having seen this pattern play out over and over for a decade and a half, and it's really Steidten's fault currently.

[Massive Attack]

Todibo  --> isn't he a loan? 

 

 

I was just about to say unless we can cancel the original loan deal to buy him for £34M once he met easily achievable criteria. People were saying it's already been achieved but nothing confirmed just yet. 

[onsideman]

Todibo  --> isn't he a loan? 

Loan with an obligation

[Jasnik]

Todibo  --> isn't he a loan? 

[Massive Attack]

Southbank

Guilherme was Steidtens. He only spent £40M on Kilman.

Steidtens signings thus far come to a total of £179M..


Mavropanos - £19M
Todibo - £34M
Alvarez - £35M
Guilherme - £25.5M
Kudus - £38M
Fullkrug - £27.5M
 

[onsideman]

It will be interesting to see what business we do in January. As others have said, likely cheap loan punts on championship players or out-of-contract types. If that happens, it wouldn't shock me if Steidten walks after the window. I don't get the sense he's had a fair shake at his task.

He wouldn't need to walk. I'd drive him

[southbankbornnbred]

Yep, I’m glad he’s gone as he was only taking us in one direction and it wasn’t an upward one. 
The trouble is that the very unimpressive Steidten is still around fucking things up. A good manger would want to see the back of him.
And now we have a bloke who also has a pretty unimpressive record who at the age of 49 has been quite happy doing fuck all for two years.  So can someone please explain to me why we should be doing cartwheels over this very short term appointment. 
As usual with a Sullivan appointment I’m very underwhelmed; but I live in hope that the bloke turns out to be a real winner.

 

 

I'm not sure that anybody's doing cartwheels. I think it's just that most of us recognised that Lopetegui was a poor fit for West Ham, was struggling with his complex tactics, which he couldn't communicate effectively due to his poor spoken English, and that he'd spent a considerable amount of money on some poor-looking players thus far.

Consequently, Potter offers the chance to stabilise things this season, re-group and re-think where we're going. Nobody was seriously going to give Lopetegui another big transfer window after he blew £40m on Kilman, £20m(ish) on Guilherme, big wages on Rodriguez and Soler etc. I wouldn't let him spend a tenner at Aldi after some of those choices.

Few of us think Potter is the second coming. But he is almost certainly an upgrade on Lopetegui, if only because the players will better understand him on the training ground and, hopefully, during matches. My abiding memory of Lope will be him admitting that, while Spurs were running amok against us in that second half, he said himself that he couldn't get messages to his defence quickly enough because his English wasn't good enough.

You can't manage like that.

[easthammer]

if he's taking training tomorrow, what staff is that with? Are some of Loppys team still there? Not sure how it all works with this stuff.


 

The Club can confirm that Assistant Head Coach Pablo Sanz, Head of Performance Oscar Caro, Head Analyst Juan Vicente Peinado, Fitness Coach Borja De Alba and Technical Coach Edu Rubio have also left with immediate effect

[Jasnik]

If Potter is not in place I'd assume the U21 staff will take over for the villa game. 

[Massive Attack]

if he's taking training tomorrow, what staff is that with? Are some of Loppys team still there? Not sure how it all works with this stuff.





 

All expensively paid up apart from the Goalkeeper Coach who does remain. It's cost us a fortune and it'll have a knock on effect for PSR..

A report from the Telegraph claims that West Ham will need to raise funds in order to afford the costs of sacking Lopetegui so that they can stay in compliance with the PSR regulations.

“Given profitability and sustainability rules constraints, there would also be the cost of replacing him and his backroom staff to be factored in,” Jason Burt states.

 

[threesixty]

if he's taking training tomorrow, what staff is that with? Are some of Loppys team still there? Not sure how it all works with this stuff.

 

[Any Old Iron]

Yep, I’m glad he’s gone as he was only taking us in one direction and it wasn’t an upward one. 
The trouble is that the very unimpressive Steidten is still around fucking things up. A good manger would want to see the back of him.
And now we have a bloke who also has a pretty unimpressive record who at the age of 49 has been quite happy doing fuck all for two years.  So can someone please explain to me why we should be doing cartwheels over this very short term appointment. 
As usual with a Sullivan appointment I’m very underwhelmed; but I live in hope that the bloke turns out to be a real winner.

[threesixty]

For ‘successful’ multi millionaire business people, Brady and Sullivan don’t appear to have much common sense in running this type of business. The approach Sullivan uses probably works in the porn industry as it’s heavily loaded with weirdos and gutter level people.

 

 

you'd think after being in the biz for 25+ yrs they'd be experts by now. But still, always making rookie mistakes and doing stupid stuff. Its weird.

[Massive Attack]

It will be interesting to see what business we do in January. As others have said, likely cheap loan punts on championship players or out-of-contract types. If that happens, it wouldn't shock me if Steidten walks after the window. I don't get the sense he's had a fair shake at his task.

Alvarez, Mavropanos, Todibo, Kudus, Fullkrug, Guilherme are all him and spent an absolute fortune to get them. How much did that little lot cost at not having a fair shake of it?

[Sir Alf]

Vexed has a point that Potter has achieved nowt in terms of trophies in the English game although I guess he won a pot or two at his first club in Sweden or Denmark or wherever it was. But not comparable to Lops Seville trophies. 

Because we lack leadership and vision or any discernable long term plan, any appointment is a “shot in the dark”. Most tend to not work but every now and then “sh*t sticks to the wall”. Lets hope Potter is one of those because it will have nothing to do with any judgement or insight from Sullivan or Brady thats for sure.

My hope is he can develop some if our U21s and we see them on the pitch and he stops us giving up so many chances in games. Midest expectations at this stage.

[kylay]

It will be interesting to see what business we do in January. As others have said, likely cheap loan punts on championship players or out-of-contract types. If that happens, it wouldn't shock me if Steidten walks after the window. I don't get the sense he's had a fair shake at his task.