Something has been bugging me. I couldn’t work out what it was, for a couple of weeks during the international break I kept reading about ‘Lopetegui needing time’, even trotting out myself the need to be patient and ‘see where we are at Christmas’. In the post – ‘M’ era, following this group of players from first steps at pre-season friendlies, I’ve been both indulgent and patient in equal measure, as have most true Irons’ fans.
If I indulged my dog and ‘gave her time’, she’d have chewed all the furniture, the car, every shoe in the place and probably digested one leg off the dining table by now. The Amazon delivery man would be sueing us too. Sometimes there is a case for demanding a bit more. Maybe set the bar a bit higher? Impatience can be a good thing if channelled positively.
And then -boom- I remembered what it was that was bugging me. During the transfer window I was researching, ‘comparing and contrasting’ the results of former manager Slaven Bilic in his first season with Manuel Pellegrini, both of whom bought in vastly expensive players and had to work with new squads – parallels with Lopetegui’s position are obvious: When Bilic arrived at the club his new acquisitions that first summer included seven players – Angelo Ogbonna, Dimitri Payet, Martin Samuelsen, Pedro Obiang, Darren Randolph to name a few.
My article never got written, but the contrast between Bilic’s first five results as a West Ham Coach and Lopetegui’s are worth underlining. Far from demanding ‘time’ and ‘patience’ – Bilic went out and beat Arsenal 2-0 away, at the Emirates in his first game as Hammers manager.
Three weeks later he took West Ham to Anfield and won. Next away game, he beat Manchester City. It was the first time the Hammers had won three successive Premier League away games in 12 years. In case you don’t remember, West Ham finished seventh in Bilic’ first season. Oh and yes, Ogbonna and Payet started that first game, rather than’ getting up to speed with the Premier League’.
So, perhaps, sometimes expectations just maybe need to be set higher than ‘give us time’ or ‘it’s a tough league’?
West Ham fans would love Lopetegui to emulate Bilic’ first season: Maybe a quick chat with Slav on the phone, Julen, would help you get focused on your KPI’s for the season? It can be done. Just have to aim high enough.
Of course, we’ll give our Spanish head coach and new team time to gel. It is very ‘2024’ to give players and teams the space to develop without pressuring them too much: I’m all for understanding the challenges which these guys face – it’s an immensely demanding physical and mental job. But they were high quality professional footballers before they donned the claret and blue – so – let’s only accept their best. History offers us useful lessons – that success often comes to those who demand more than ‘patience’.