West Ham have put themselves into a bizarre purgatory with their game-by-game backing of Julen Lopetegui.
Hammers fans were demanding Julen Lopetegui be sacked after the 3-1 defeat at Leicester last week.
West Ham’s owners gave the Spaniard one more game.
But, according to widespread reports, that was only to buy themselves more time to line up a replacement.
It’s been claimed Graham Potter has agreed to take over at West Ham on an initial six-month contract which will be reviewed in the summer.
Max Allegri also caused a stir this week by refusing to deny talks with West Ham about taking over at the end of the season.
West Ham fans still want Lopetegui out after the unconvincing win over woeful Wolves.
The Hammers hierarchy have made it clear they weren’t impressed either.
According to a top board source close to David Sullivan, Lopetegui was told before the Wolves game that he must win each of the next four matches.
That piles pressure on an extremely tough looking trip to Bournemouth next on Monday night.
To add further intrigue, Andoni Iraola is also reportedly on a shortlist of managers Sullivan likes should the axe fall on Lopetegui.
Dithering Sullivan will be scared into West Ham action
Iraola has the Cherries punching well above their weight and playing the kind of football West Ham fans hoped for when parting ways with David Moyes.
His work at the Vitality, on a much smaller budget, is being used as a stick with which to beat Lopetegui as he fails to get a tune out of his expensively assembled Hammers squad.
West Ham have been so poor that Lopetegui has earned unflattering comparisons with the likes of Manuel Pellegrini and Avram Grant.
There is no hiding the fact there are striking similarities between Lopetegui and Pellegrini.
From the naïve tactics and high defensive line to questionable team selections, the big spending and their CV prior to taking over at West Ham.
But constant tales of unrest, bust-ups, in-fighting and poor man management under the Spaniard are much more relatable to the disastrous tenure of Grant.
Regarded the worst manager in West Ham’s history Grant led the club to relegation during a dismal campaign as they finished rock bottom on 33 points, eight adrift of survival.
By this date under Grant, West Ham had 13 points, five behind Lopetegui’s current total.
But while relegation is not a real concern for the Hammers, wasting a season backing the wrong man has drawn striking comparisons between the board’s handling of the Lopetegui and Grant tenures.
Now dithering Sullivan will be scared into West Ham action by Kieron Dyer’s haunting claim.
Dyer’s haunting claim serves as Lopetegui warning
Under Grant, West Ham had lined up Martin O’Neill to take over.
It was all agreed but the Hammers kept hesitating to pull the trigger on the ex Chelsea boss.
When news O’Neill had agreed to replace Grant became public, the Northern Irishman was angered and withdrew.
That left West Ham stuck with Grant and the rest, as they say, is history.
While the consequences of failing to act on Lopetegui might not be as grave as it was with Grant, it could still cost West Ham dear.
Competing for Europe again was the stated aim when the former Real Madrid boss was brought in.
The Hammers had become used to the extra income from European football over the last three years.
And it is now more important than ever given the restrictions of PSR.
Most West Ham fans know all about the famous Scott Parker team talk which saw the team rally from 3-0 down at half-time to draw 3-3 with West Brom.
But former Hammers star Dyer has been recounting that moment and just how bad Grant was.
If it doesn’t serve as a reminder to Sullivan of the cost of dithering over a manager when it is clear things aren’t working, then nothing will.
“(Grant was) the worst, the worst,” Dyer told Open Goal Football.
“I remember walking past his office and he’d be (imitates Grant fast asleep) snoring like that.
“It’s like ‘you’re the manager mate’. Ridiculous. I remember we were losing (3-0) at West Brom and he’s just about to do one of his (whispering) softly spoken team talks. And Scott Parker went like ‘just sit down mate’ and Scott Parker just does this team talk like you had to hear it, when the hairs stand up type thing.
“It was the most incredible team talk. It was just so inspirational like ‘this is West Brom, what they’re doing to us, have some ******* pride’.
“We come back and you knew actually Scott Parker was the manager of West Ham at the time.
“Avram was just sleeping. Jesus Christ.”
Nobody is saying Lopetegui is as incompetent as Grant.
But reports of the chaos behind the scenes and the lack of respect he commands should ring alarm bells in east London.
Lose to Bournemouth and Sullivan cannot afford to dither any longer.
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