West Ham must end Julen Lopetegui misery now and appoint Klopp disciple who wants the job

The whispers around his future started after West Ham’s pathetic 4-1 whipping at Spurs.

And they’re going nowhere.

A lucky win over Man United was the only thing that stopped Lopetegui going into the international break off the back of three heavy defeats and that bore fest draw with lowly Everton.

Well I call them lowly, they’re only just below the Hammers in the table approaching a third of the way through the Premier League season.

Right now there is nothing anyone can point to as tangible evidence Lopetegui can and will eventually get a tune out of this Hammers team.

His only redeeming feature so far is that he’s willing to make changes early in games.

But that’s usually because he’s got the tactics and team selection painfully wrong in the first place.

The statistics and results are big black marks against the Spaniard.

Nobody needs to look at the stats, though. Just watch West Ham with your own two eyes and you’ll see this isn’t working.

Hammers fans were understandably underwhelmed by Lopetegui’s appointment in the first place.

A certain amount of blame sits with Tim Steidten and David Sullivan.

West Ham must end Lopetegui misery and appoint Klopp disciple

But Lopetegui knew what he was signing up to in that Steidten would be making most of the calls on transfers.

Yet he had the audacity to shift the blame onto Steidten before he headed back to Spain this week, saying he can’t implement his style with the players he’s been given.

One might have thought those comments would put him on the brink as much as the performances and results.

A host of managers have been linked as replacements.

If there really is no smoke without fire then Lopetegui is hanging by a thread.

West Ham’s owners have said they are sticking by the manager for now.

But it has been made abundantly clear the board do not expect to see big defeats in the next two games – against Newcastle and Arsenal.

That sounded as much like a warning as it did support if truth be told.

West Ham fans have given Lopetegui a chance. And many want to see him allowed more time to put his stamp on the club.

What’s the point, though. He has publicly admitted he can’t do that with the players he has.

And there won’t be much beyond loan deals in January unless a player or two is sold.

This squad needs a coach with a more modern, innovative approach.

Someone who can inspire instead. Because Lopetegui’s message isn’t getting through to the players – many of whom have shown public dissent towards him.

That’s something West Ham fans only ever saw once in all David Moyes’ time at the club. When he took off Said Benrahma. Suffice to say Benrahma didn’t do it again.

Terzic ‘on standby’ and ‘wants West Ham’

After the thrashing at Spurs, German journalist Florian Plettenberg – who counts Steidten among his contacts – claimed ‘West Ham have put Edin Terzic on standby’.

Crucially, he also claimed Terzic is open to the job.

Many believe further proof of that has arrived this week with the brains behind West Ham’s Farewell Boleyn season turning down the Roma job.

West Ham fans are bored stiff. The players look like they are too.

Even the most optimistic of Hammers supporters is expecting heavy defeats in the next two games.

If that happens then the club could even find itself in the bottom three.

So West Ham must end the Lopetegui misery now and appoint a Klopp disciple who wants the job.

Here’s six exciting reasons the Hammers must bring Terzic to the club before someone else snaps him up.

1) Terzic has been he before and he gets West Ham

There is a lot to be said for the fact Terzic is very familiar with the club.

There are few candidates out there nowadays, besides maybe Scott Parker, who can say the same.

It counts for a lot at West Ham. Understanding the fans and what they want and expect is crucial.

With a mother from Croatia, Terzic would have felt at home when he arrived in the country on a scouting mission for BVB. Over dinner, an agent he met there said he would introduce him to his brother – who turned out to be then Croatia and later West Ham boss Slaven Bilic.

“I didn’t think about it until I was at a game in Sweden and three days before the European Championship in 2012 I got a phone call,” Terzić told the West Ham website at the time. 

“I didn’t respond. Then I got another phone call and didn’t respond. Then I got a message: ‘Please call me back. Regards, Slaven Bilic.’”

“So I thought I’d better call back! I called back, and that’s the story of how we met each other in 2012.”

Three years later, the pair linked up again in London when Bilic moved to West Ham. They led the Hammers to seventh and 11th-placed finishes in the Premier League between August 2015 and November 2017.

“For someone of my age and my background, it was unbelievable to have those experiences,” Terzic told Ruhr Nachrichten.

“The time I spent in Turkey and England was very valuable for me.”

2) Terzic is literally a student of the beautiful game

Terzic knew he wasn’t good enough to play at the top level. So he played out a a semi-pro career in regional leagues to help pay for his sports science studies at Ruhr University in Bochum as a young man.

While on that course he met current Germany U20 head coach Hannes Wolf.

The pair ended up working at Dortmund, with Terzic rewarded for learning the ins and outs of coaching from a young age.

“I studied for my UEFA A Licence and met the chief scout of Borussia Dortmund, and a couple of months later he called me and offered me a job,” he once explained.

“In 2010, I stopped playing and started working as a coach with Dortmund.”

3) Terzic is a disciple of Jurgen Klopp

What West Ham would do for a manager with the charisma and football nous of Jurgen Klopp right now.

While Klopp was at Dortmund, his compatriot Terzic began combining his role as a scout with helping out his old pal Wolf as assistant coach of the black and yellow’s U17, U19 and U23 teams.

While he was learning his trade and identifying players who could improve the first team, Terzic also got to see up close and personal how Klopp’s side took Germany and Europe by storm.

Dortmund won back-to-back league titles between 2010 and 2012 – as well as the DFB Cup in 2012 – before losing 2-1 to Bayern Munich in the 2013 Champions League final at Wembley.

Working under one of the best managers in the world in his formative years has clearly had a big impact on Terzic.

4) Lopetegui struggling for respect? Terzic’s players love him

Terzic succeeded Lucien Favre on an interim basis at Dortmund midway through the 2020/21 season. Amid difficult circumstances, he revitalised a big club which was struggling to spark into life.

BVB clinched the DFB Cup title and qualified for the Champions League under the reported West Ham target.

That success came from Terzic’s management style, which saw him get the best out of the likes of Erling Haaland, Jadon Sancho and club captain Marco Reus. The harmony in the dressing room was one of the main reasons for their transformation. But don’t take our word for it.

“Edin Terzic did a great job. He took over the team in December when it was half dead and he brought it to life,” said Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke.

“We play at high intensity, with new energy and new life,” echoed American star Gio Reyna.

In 2021/22, Terzić moved into the newly created role of technical director and extended his contract until 2025, with Marco Rose coming in as head coach. However, the former Borussia Mönchengladbach boss was relieved of his duties after only a season in charge, and Terzic was offered the top job. The Dortmund hierarchy hoped his popularity with players and fans, plus his long-term experience at the club, would allow them to launch a stronger title bid in 2022/23.

They were right.

After an inconsistent start, top form in 2023 saw them surge right to the top of the table as they smashed in 56 goals in 18 matches. Terzic was able to integrate thrilling youngsters like Karim Adeyemi – more on him in a minutes – and Donyell Malen while keeping experienced heads like Reus and Hummels at the forefront.

The season ended in heartbreak when Sebasiten Haller’s last gasp penalty miss meant they drew 2-2 at home to Mainz whilst Bayern won late on in Cologne to clinch the title in dramatic fashion.

Last season – and 11 years after their last Champions League final appearance – Terzic led Dortmund back there.

5) Terzic is highly regarded in the West Ham boardroom

The former Hammers assistant is said to be very highly thought of in the West Ham boardroom.

He is still in touch with his former captain Mark Noble, now sporting director at the London Stadium.

Crucially he also has a relationship with that man Steidten – who runs West Ham’s football operation.

6) Terzic could help Hammers land reported striker target

West Ham were heavily linked with jet-heeled forward Adeyemi in the summer.

He was just what the Hammers needed. A young, quick dynamic forward.

Ironically they signed an ageing, injury-prone striker with a lack of pace from Dortmund in Niclas Fullkrug.

Terzic was getting a tune out of both players and Adeyemi has five goals and three assists in seven games this season.

Apparently Dortmund are open to a sale to recoup some money.

Channels of communication are already open between the clubs after the Fullkrug deal.

Having Terzic as manager could be what makes the 22-year-old’s mind up.

Lopetegui looks like the wrong fit at the wrong time for the Hammers.

Terzic is available and reportedly wants the job.

Just get it done West Ham.

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