The suggestion that Rúben Amorim was on the verge of joining the Hammers after agreeing personal terms before he flew to London is ridiculous.
Historically West Ham do not pay other clubs’ compensation for managers, and they never have. After the Manuel Pellegrini experiment, the Hammers are wary paying big money for a manager in wages, so it is very much a case of once bitten, twice shy!
It is true that Amorim flew to London for a meeting with a West Ham senior figure but his cunning plan to force Liverpool’s hand to come in for him backfired and he went back to Lisbon with his tail between his legs apologising to his Lisbon club, players and fans for his ill-thought-out actions.
At that point Lopetegui was already the primary target so from a Wet Ham point of view, it did no harm in concentrating his and his agent’s mind to agree his head coach personal terms at a reported €4m (£3.3m) per season.
Amorim reportedly wanted €10m per season (£8.3m) to manage in the Premier League which is want he has asked Manchester United – which re-enforces why it is laughable that personal terms were agreed by West Ham before the plug was pulled by a prominent shareholder.
A senior source has since confirmed that Amorim was considered too much of a gamble by the West Ham board with his compensation and wage demands an additional factor in their thinking.
In truth, West Ham spoke with many experienced coaches in their hunt to replace David Moyes, the Amorim story came to be in the public domain after photos of him boarding a private jet and reports were leaked by people close to him.
