Lopetegui to Potter: Inside West Ham's crazy week
40:51 Share

It's the season to shop new styles, electronics, and definitely a holiday trip. And what if each time you made a purchase, you got a little something back? With Rakuten, you can earn cash back on just about anything you buy from over 750 stores. So if you're looking to buy a new phone, clothes, skincare, or a getaway, well, you can get cash back. So treat yourself, family, and friends well.

and book that holiday trip now. Start getting cash back today by joining Rakuten. It's free and easy to use, and you can get cash back deposited into your PayPal account or sent to you as a check. It's the smartest way to shop, plain and simple. Start your shopping at rakuten.ca or get the Rakuten app. That's R-A-K-U-T-E-N dot C-A.

This episode is brought to you by Unstoppable. Discover the inspiring true story about Anthony Robles who defied every expectation to become a national wrestling champion in Unstoppable, a new original movie from Amazon MGM Studios and director William Goldenberg, evoking the excitement and camaraderie of classic sports dramas and thrilling wrestling matches. Unstoppable features an all-star ensemble cast, including Jharrel Jerome, Jennifer Lopez, Don Cheadle, Michael Pena, and Bobby Cannavale. Unstoppable is streaming exclusively on Prime Video January 16th.

Build a routine with Ollie that supports your wellness needs, like getting your daily vitamins and minerals with Ollie's Multigummies, or keeping your mood upbeat with all the vitamin D in Hello Happy. Give your gut health some support with probiotics, and wake up feeling refreshed after taking Ollie's sleep. Do wellness on your terms. Find Ollie at a Walmart or Target near you, or at Ollie.com. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

The Athletic FC Podcast Network. Welcome to the Athletic FC Podcast, I'm Ian Irving. On Wednesday, after weeks of speculation, West Ham finally sacked Julian Lapertegui. Everyone knew the goals would flow again for Manchester City. It was just a matter of time and a case of who would be on the end of a hiding.

Coming up, we'll explain why the club decided to part ways after just eight months and why they've chosen Graham Potter as their new head coach.

Okay, joining us for this one in our London studio is David Ornstein, our football correspondent, of course, and also the West Ham writer, Rashane Thomas, who has found an interesting room at the London Stadium to record this for Shane. Yeah, indeed. Right now, I'm currently where the security guards have their lunch. So I'm the only one here, so it's nice and quiet right now.

Yeah, that's dedication, my friend. Just finding a room wherever you can. Let's get into some of the detail of this then, David. I mean, it's been an interesting week for West Ham. It's been an interesting period with Lopetegui in charge. Why was he sacked? Where to begin? I don't think it was ultimately deemed the right appointment from the beginning. And it's easy to say with hindsight, Ian, but the red flags now appear to have been there

throughout. Firstly, he wasn't the top choice despite what Tim Stuyton, the sporting director, said at the news conference to unveil Lopetegui. I guess he had to say that. But, you know, they met with Ruben Amorim and we don't know their exact

list of preferences but that would indicate that maybe Lopetegui was not in the driver's seat and not just in terms of West Ham's preference but also his because you may remember from the time that Julian Lopetegui was keen on the AC Milan job and there was protests among the fan base there and he didn't end up taking it so that made a convoluted entrance and there

there were issues reported in pre-season in terms of the intensity of training. They had some very bad results. I think it was over in the USA. They started the season in pretty terrible fashion. They had recruited heavily. It's not clear how much influence he had in some of the signings. Certainly when you look at somebody like Nicholas Fulcroog signed for almost £30 million at the age of 31 and

you go across that recruitment list and you sort of think to yourself some of these players really need to step it up otherwise it's going to come to be seen as a disastrous spell the Somervilles of this world Guilherme even Kilman and so on

And then as the weeks and months have progressed with bad results, not the greatest performance level, the style of football, which was one of the main reasons that Lopetegui was appointed. You had fallouts, suggestions of Kudus at half time, having a row with Lopetegui against Boulogne.

Brentford, of Tadebo at half-time, having a row with Lopetegui against Arsenal. What looked like a decent relationship between Lopetegui and Tim Stuyton at the beginning when they were seen talking pitch side before matches suddenly became very distant, culminating in suggestions that Lopetegui told Tim Stuyton to stay away from the training ground.

and it kind of became the perfect storm. Nothing was going right. The hierarchy led by David Sullivan were not happy with Lopetegui, and then it was almost death by a thousand cuts because it was a matter of when rather than if. I got suggestions in December that he was on the brink of being sacked with Graham Potter.

very high in the thinking to replace him and that's ultimately how it's panned out he had a couple of stays of execution got a good result at Newcastle he stumbled his way through had a little unbeaten sequence but ultimately he's not been given the time that he felt he would need it's a shame he's a really nice guy

great dignity, professionalism, no complaints on that front, but it hasn't worked out. West Ham very rarely sack managers or they're reluctant to. I don't think a manager has ever started a season...

at the beginning of a campaign and been dismissed in the same campaign. If they've started at the beginning of a season, they've always got at least through to the end of that season before being sacked. And that hasn't happened with Lopetegui, which shows that

West Ham felt they needed to take drastic measures with relegation creeping into the rearview mirror. Yeah, that's always the thing that tends to push these sort of decisions, isn't it? Just to spell it out, like David was suggesting there, just 22 matches in charge for Lopetegui of West Ham. It's the shortest serving manager in their 124-year history. How much of an admission, acting this way, this quickly, is it that they got it wrong in the summer?

Well, you said this quickly. It could have been even quicker. Yeah. It could have been even quicker, honestly. If one member of the board had it their way, they would have sat Tim Senni in November. So that tells you how poor he has been in his role as head coach. And, you know, David just touched on that. He is a nice guy. He is a nice guy overall. But what do they say about nice guys in general? Finish lost. That tends to be the saying about nice guys now.

Not quite last, 14th it turns out, yeah. 14th. And what I'd compare it to, you know, like, think about your school days. You have a teacher and everyone takes the lesson serious. You've got to do your homework. You can't be naughty in class or you get detention. And then every so often you get a supplier teacher and everyone seems to do a free lesson. The supplier teacher tries to assert authority but no one takes them seriously. And honestly, that's what I'd compare it to Loptegi. He'll try and assert authority and obviously it wouldn't go to the way he desired.

Ornish just touched on him clashing with Kudic, for example. Loptegi clashing with the Debo during halftime. He had to fight against Arsenal. And it was so bad, they had to be separated. So there's a number of cases, and these are the two players. You also clash with Alphonso Arreola, the goalkeeper. So you look at that and you think, the whole dressing room dynamic, the whole happiness, it was reaching a point where change had to be made. And my main takeaway was...

the man of the defeats to the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea, the Man City. It's one thing to lose but the way West Ham were capitulating in those matches was just so bad and the fans had voiced their discontent but the one game where they really were like, you know what, enough is enough was the 3-1 loss against Leicester because for the first time that's when they call us we're getting sacked in the morning.

Yeah, to sing that to your own manager is quite something, isn't it? I was at that game as well and I was shocked at what I was hearing from the away crowd. But, I mean, it's understandable considering the results. I mean, he's ended with a record of nine defeats from that short spelling charge, which...

obviously is so far below what was expected at West Ham. And actually, David, from the outside, the business that was done in the summer, I think it was nine first-team players that came into West Ham. I mean, Lopetegui came with a reputation as a former Real Madrid coach,

a Europa League winning coach as well. From the outside, it seemed like this was a really exciting appointment actually and an exciting moment with the investment in the team, but it's just not worked out, has it? Yeah, I don't want to besmirch Lopetegui at all, but when you look at what he's done in the jobs that he's had in terms of the Spain national team, obviously that was pretty disastrous. I remember besmirching

being out was it the 2018 world cup in russia when it all unraveled uh real madrid severe has he got as good a track record as some people have suggested i'm not so sure he definitely has good attributes and um personality wise that's not an insignificant factor but then the recruitment has come a huge expense i mean i think it's around 200 million pounds i

That's massive. And you've got to deliver on that. Now, this is a failure that has many fathers because you look at Tim Stuyton as sporting director, you look at the recruitment team around him, you look at the board, the ownership in terms of David Sullivan, of Karen Brady, of everybody involved in this. You can't apportion it to one person. But I don't really understand what the thinking was in some of those recruits. And

of course they tried to get John Duran which may have been a very canny signing but they didn't want to go to the level of finance required to prize him from Aston Villa but then to turn alternatively to Fulcrook raises big questions you know you saw somebody like Liverpool in the summer when they wanted to sign a midfielder they identified Martin Zubimendi they ended up

failing to land him and they did not turn to an alternative because they didn't feel the right player was there for them and so far it appears shrewd they'll probably come back to that position in the future but West Ham seemed anxious to you know bring in bodies and even some of the more renowned performers have not been

excelling at all and we've seen Kudos drop off this season. There's also been misfortune with injuries to Jared Bowen. That's pretty unavoidable, the nature of his recent injury and he's such an important player and he's their captain. Prior to that you saw them lose Mikel Antonio to a horrific car crash and thank goodness that he's still with us and hopefully he's going to make a full recovery. So it

it was an amalgamation of problems stemming from that transfer window. And that's one of the things that's going to need to be put right because you speak to so many people in football and it's all about recruitment. And so what does the future hold for Tim Stuyton? Because there's been a lot of speculation they may make a change to his role. He brought his brother in to work with him. Suggestions that David Sullivan's going to take a more hands-on approach around recruitment too.

it's a perennial question with West Ham and it's something they need to get right. They're now left with ageing players in many parts of the team, reasonable contracts, long contracts and that can prove to be a noose around the neck and it's way below what they would have been expecting and as is often the case, one person pays the price and it's the head coach.

You're listening to The Athletic FC Podcast.

This episode is brought to you by Amazon. Sometimes the most painful part of getting sick is the getting better part. Waiting on hold for an appointment, sitting in crowded waiting rooms, standing in line at the pharmacy, that's painful. Amazon One Medical and Amazon Pharmacy remove those painful parts of getting better with things like 24-7 virtual visits and prescriptions delivered to your door. Thanks to Amazon Pharmacy and Amazon One Medical, healthcare just got less painful.

Oh, it's such a clutch off-season pickup, Dave. I was worried we'd bring back the same team. I meant those blackout motorized shades. Blinds.com made it crazy affordable to replace our old blinds. Hard to install? No, it's easy. I installed these and then got some from my mom. She talked to a design consultant for free and scheduled a professional measure and install. Hall of Fame's son? They're the number one online retailer of custom window coverings in the world. Blinds.com is the GOAT. Shop Blinds.com right now and get up to 40% off select styles, plus a free professional measure. Rules and restrictions may apply.

Hi.

Rashane, obviously we'll get into the detail on Graham Potter and exactly why he's been the choice for West Ham later on in the podcast. But David makes an interesting point there almost about the identity of the club and exactly which direction they want to go in because this situation with Lopetegui feels very similar to the situation with Manuel Pellegrini just a few seasons ago. And as you wrote in your piece, this was the glamorous, ambitious upgrade on the work done by David Moyes. That was supposed to be the idea internally, right?

So is there something in that that West Ham need to get right now moving forward, that they need to know exactly who they are and make the right sort of appointments and the right sort of signings for the type of club they want to be moving forward? Yeah, for sure. And it's a great point because as you touched on, whenever the board opted to go in a new direction of a foreign culture, how has it gone to plan? Since what they've been in charge for the best part of what, 14, 15 years now,

It's only really Bilic who's been a good foreign coach. All the others have been British managers, whether it's David Moyes, whether it's Sam Anadais, even before that, Alan Pardew, Alan Kerbishley, Harry Redknapp. So going down the British model, I believe is what the club should stick to because they've had more success with it. And

In terms of Lopetegui himself, nothing on paper suggested that it would be a good appointment. If you look back at his track record at Wolves in terms of his breakdown relationship with the owners there, the screen of potential signings, the fan base turning on him, and not playing an attractive style of football, nothing suggested that it would be a success because one of the areas that fans got frustrated with Moyes was the style of play. They felt like the style of play was often sit deep on brick on the counter. They got bored of watching that.

And when you're watching West Ham this season under Pellegrini, sorry, under Loptegi, rather, it's almost similar. So there wasn't much improvement there. And then just going back to some of the signings, you have to look at someone like Alois Guillemins with £25 million. He had to start a league game. As when he touched on Nicholas Fulcrag, he doesn't represent West Ham's long-term future. He's 31, injury-prone. You're better off signing a younger striker you can build with for the future. Of all the nine signings, if I'm being really harsh,

Bamber Saka's been really good, been very solid. Metz Kilmer's been solid to a degree as well. Tadebo, I like, he's shown signs of promise. And maybe that's it from me, Nance. Rush, didn't Tadebo initially want to go to Juventus and West Ham put the more lucrative financial package together? So although you say he's impressed to an extent, it was almost like you should be bringing in players that really want to be there. And

You mentioned that there was tension at half-time of the Arsenal match. There have been suggestions around Thibaut, fair or unfair, about his character for some time and that maybe had put off some other clubs previously in his career because he was heavily linked with Manchester United and various others, Tottenham I think at one point and maybe...

Not specifically looking at his performance here, but is that symptomatic of some greater due diligence that needs to go into this recruitment? I think it was Rob Newman who was head of recruitment there with David Moyes and regarded among people I speak to at other clubs as having done a really good job. And if you reflect on that period, it's now starting to look very impressive when Moyes, Newman and Moyes,

Sullivan and others and maybe now they've hit a more difficult patch. Yeah, no, that's a good point and just touch on Rob Newman, him and Moira's relationship, it dates back to their playing career at Bristol City. So they got on really well and it was Rob Newman arriving from Man City, in a way it was a promotion for Rob Newman because at Man City he mainly worked with the youth team. So it was a promotion for him to work with the first team and the good thing about Rob Newman was he was behind the scenes.

behind the scenes in a sense where he really wanted to be seen, really wanted to like, you know, speak well about the signings he made. All the praise goes to David Moyes.

And the issue with Tim Stuyton is he's been keen to be seen. So, examples include before the 3-0 loss against Chelsea, he was interviewed by TNT Sport, I believe. Now, if you compare that to other clubs, rarely will you see someone in a technical director role being interviewed before a match. So, that's the first example. The second being before the 4-1 loss at Tottenham Hotspur, he was in the tunnel. Now,

Now again, why are you in the tunnel? Shouldn't you be in the director's box with all these other directors? Why is it a case where you're so keen to be noticed? So there's also that. And that's why, in a sense, when I was on the Moise, it was just nice behind the scenes. So when he didn't have to work alongside of Stiden, there was a breakdown. Also before matches, it would often be having discussions with Moise while he's trying to prepare the team. So there's so many factors which went against Stiden then.

that's I guess a reason why it didn't work out with him and Loptegi in terms of their relationship obviously I know we're talking about Loptegi but I thought it was quite telling today in the press conference that Graham Potter sort of brushed off questions to do with Chris Dyden he was asked like

how much you're looking forward to working with him, you know, the fall of that leaked on Monday, what's the conversation like? He didn't really engage much conversation about it. So I thought that was quite telling as well. Right, let's get into the chaotic week then, as it's been for West Ham, David. I mean, how early in the last seven days did you think that this change was coming? I thought the change was coming before Christmas. That's a lot earlier than this week. Yeah, I nearly broke the story one day in December. That's...

That would actually beat everyone else because there's been a bit of a battle this week to be first on this story, hasn't there? I think not even enough the club had decided and people were reporting, this is what's happening, almost forcing their hand. He was definitely sacked before he was sacked. Yeah. Sacked by the media. Or by you before Christmas, by the sound of it. No, no, no, no, no. Not that he had been sacked, but that...

The board were meeting to sort of deliberate his future with an expectation that he would be dismissed and Graham Potter very high in the thinking to replace him. As this week unfolded, you've got to be careful in your journalism and reporting because at certain places, you never know until the sort of ink is dry and the official announcement comes out. They can change things.

any point and and that has happened with West Ham quite a lot so you apply sort of extra layers of sensitivity and I think they were a little bit back and forth which is evidenced by the fact that after reports came that he'd been sacked he led training I think for two days possibly three. It's messy that isn't it? It is it's a bit unbecoming and lacking in dignity I don't think West

West Ham would intentionally have been trying to undermine Lopetegui, who they're fond of. But these situations are never easy. And it's happened at some of the biggest clubs. You know, Manchester United with Eric Ten Hag and they were interviewing people essentially behind his back around the time of the FA Cup final and after. Always a bit awkward. So they were talking to Graham Potter. They had been for some time. And it's clear that the crux of the conversation here

had come down to the contract length with the suggestion that I was getting in December that it would be a deal until the end of the season a short term contract and then you'd see thereafter clearly at

at this point in the new year that's something he was not keen to do and it's ended up as a two and a half year contract having been out of football for 18 20 months I don't think Potter who had turned down a number of opportunities at places like Ajax he'd been linked with so many positions was suddenly just going to return for six months somewhere or not even six months really it's sort of four or five months now and

and when they broke through on that with this two and a half year deal I think that's when they decided okay we'll pull the trigger on Yulin Lopetegui now Potter is in and I do think that's a really strong appointment by the way I don't know if he was the first choice for

Everyone involved in the decision-making process. We saw the likes of Paolo Fonseca spoken to, of previously Edin Terzic linked and Sergio Conceição before he went to AC Milan. But Potter is the man. He'll take charge for the Aston Villa FA Cup tie and hope springs eternal at the London Stadium that he can be the man to lift them back up to better days.

In terms of the preparation for that FA Cup third round tie, which is just over 24 hours away as we record now against Aston Villa, this is hardly ideal preparation, is it? Why do you think it has taken to this point to make this change ahead of the game? And how do you think David Sullivan's come out of this in terms of the opinion amongst the West Ham support?

Well, in terms of the play itself, mainly due to the negotiations, in terms of Potter wanting a longer deal. He was asked about it in the press conference, but he didn't want to give details in terms of the contract itself, said that's a private matter between me and the club. But certainly that's what he was pushing for. And

Just to touch on today's earlier point, I do sympathise for Lopetegui because he's also mourning the loss of his dad from last month as well. He also facts for that. So it's been a tough few days for him. And in fairness, he's come out really well because he's made a professional. He's just done a job to the best of his ability. So fair credit to him for that. In terms of David Sullivan, where do we start?

Where do you start? In terms of supporters, they've been really frustrated with how he's conducted, not him conducting himself, but how the board had been overall the past few days. Because it mirrors the 2010-11 season when Averon Grant was under pressure. And finally, after the season, West Ham were relegated. And they wanted to appoint Martin O'Neill as manager. And they were in negotiations. And in the end, Martin O'Neill turned down West Ham because of the leaks. He was fed up with the leaks. He thought, you know what? I'm not taking this job.

And when negotiations were stolen between Graham Potter and West Ham,

I half thought whether he would follow suit, like Martin and I, you know what, I'm going to wait a bit longer, I'll go somewhere else. And the fairness to Graham Potter, today in the press conference, he said, you know what, when I spoke to the board, I felt like it was the right fit, you know, trying to get everyone aligned, do what we want to do, we want to challenge for Europe again. And I thought, okay, maybe with the length of lovely discussions where I could see if everyone was aligned together. And it just happens to be that they are. It's an amazing tradition here. There's expectation, there's demands, there's a recent history of success.

And that's what we want to work towards. And everybody's aligned because that's the key. Everybody being aligned in terms of what we're trying to achieve, how we want to achieve it, how we want to play football, how we want to use the resources that we have. If that alignment's there, then with that trust and with that connection, why put a seed on anything? Let's just go with the journey and be excited about it and go with a smile. In terms of David Sullivan, the fans all get frustrated of how he's been over the past few days. But look,

they're always going to have that sort of relationship between the supporters and the hierarchy because there's other factors like the stadium, for example, they don't still feel like it's home for them. And then we think about the silence they made, the constant leaks. So there's a number of factors why the fan base has been frustrated with Sullivan and the board. Yeah, it's not unusual either, is it, for supporters and owners to have a difficult relationship. You see that across the Premier League, to be fair. Let's look ahead then for West Ham. Next, we're going to take a look at the specifics of what Graham Potter's going to bring.

This is the Athletic FC Podcast. Proud day to be head coach, manager of this amazing club. It's a big tradition, big history, big expectation, big challenge. So I'm really excited. It's almost a bit like Christmas.

Christmas for the adults, you know. So let's look ahead then. Let's look at what Graham Potter is going to bring to the London Stadium. We're joined in the studio by our athletic football tactics writer, Liam Tharm. Liam, thank you for joining us. And you might have noticed if you're watching this on video that Rashane has changed positions. He's left the room where I presume the security guards are now having their lunch.

to go back into the room where Graham Potter held his press conference earlier and that's perfect timing for Shane. How did he come across do you think in that room earlier? Yeah, he spoke for the best part of 35 minutes. He spoke about his ambitions for the club, how he wants to overcome his previous disappointment at Chelsea. He referenced

If Pep Guardiola has a point to prove, then I guess you'll have a point to prove. And how he believes he's a better person, a better coach, probably 20 months out of management. And how he's done stuff in the meantime to try and improve. He wants to bring anyone together, a line to hopefully challenge for Europe at some point in the future. And he wants to, you know, hopefully bring through academy players and help on Mark Noble. So yeah, he's spoke really well. Yeah, that's good. It's good to set a positive first impression, certainly. Liam, thank you for joining us as well. You've written a lot, incredibly.

in recent times about Graham Potter. There was a piece that went up just after Christmas about the coach that he'd become. You said in that there was a quote from him that you used to say that, you know, it's hard to be a sexy name when you're called Potter. But then when you read the piece, terms like peak end rule, does that still get the tactical juices flowing? Is this still a sexy appointment for West Ham?

I think it can be. The PKM rule is really a concept I sort of nubbed from psychology. I'd read a couple of books and thought it sounded quite interesting where, you know, our memories, how we remember things are

generally the most intense or significant part of it and how the thing ends and with Potter that was really a big run at Brighton that he had in the back end of 2021-22 into 2022-23 that kind of summer where Brighton were excellent and they won 10 times they beat Manchester United twice in that run that was including Ten Hag at Old Trafford and a big I think was a four in a win at the Amex they beat Arsenal and Tottenham as well

And of course, you can contrast that to the end of his time at Chelsea when they lost to Aston Villa and had, you know, a bit of a bleak run after a really strong start at Chelsea in Italy and getting through to the Champions League knockout. So,

There's some ups and downs within it. I think you can zoom in on whatever part of it you want and take away the narrative you want from it. There's evidence to show that he's really good at taking a club and raising the floor, improving a group of players. There's a whole list of players that came through at Brighton or that were signed and went on to big six clubs now because of him. So maybe he's had more success in terms of actually launching careers than necessarily silverware. But there's a lot of reasons to be optimistic, I think. Yeah, based on what you've just said and also the articles you've written, the

the real question is how well suited is this West Ham squad to what Graham Potter will want to do tactically I think it's interesting because one thing he never really did at Brighton specifically was use wingers he liked his central players an awful lot more there was a period

a period of time during the run where Brighton were really successful including the wins over Manchester United he played Leandro Trossard and Sonny March as inverted wing backs in a back five and it worked really well because he had the McAllister and Caicedo double pivot but West Ham of course have got real sort of strength out wide particularly Mohamed Koudis off that wing Gerard Bowen too when he plays off the wing rather than through the middle they've got the quality of Luca Pacatara as well but they played a lot of switches under Lopetegui they've

used to switch play a lot on the David Moyes too. So whether he sort of leans into that or tries to find a different system, obviously we'll have to wait and see. But I think his ability to improve defences is really important here. West Ham have lost six times this season by three plus goals. So I think when they've been bad, they've been really quite bad. And admittedly that's been Arsenal, that's been other top teams that have come and really sort of dispatched them and put them away. But that's just too many goals to be conceding, even if the Premier League is quite a goal-heavy league now. So really they need...

I'm mindful to use the word pragmatism, but I think one of the biggest shunts of Potters Brighton were they really got blown out of the water. They weren't often exciting. They drew quite a lot. They drew nil-nil, actually probably more than almost anyone else, but they were quite good at being a bit defensive, if you like, with possession. David, do you compare this job to the one that he had at Brighton or do you compare this job to the one that he had at Chelsea? Which one's more similar in your mind? Chelsea, because...

Brighton he arrives into the perfect setup very settled environment great infrastructure on and off the pitch clarity it's a fantastic setup led by Tony Bloom Paul Barber now David Weir obviously Dan Ashworth was there at the time it was a glove fit and

And Potter capitalised on that. At Chelsea, it was far less settled, given the arrival of the Todd Bowley Clear Lake Capital ownership. It was somewhat chaotic. And that is understandable to an extent, given the circumstances of the Roman Abramovich era coming to an end. New players coming, new executives, people leaving at various levels. And so...

You could say a little bit disjointed and that has comparisons to where

West Ham. And so, OK, Chelsea were at a different level then. Their fans have different levels of expectation. Chelsea, you are demanded to win trophies or at least compete for them. And that's not really the case at West Ham just now, even though they would love to, of course. But just in terms of the environment he walks into, it's much more similar to Chelsea than Brighton. However, when I saw him speaking in his press conference today, he looked...

far more at ease and and comfortable and less stressed than he did at Chelsea I remember many of the news conferences there are just some people who and I don't say this in any disrespectful way but they look a little bit out of their depth or uncomfortable when they're in that hot seat and and I felt that throughout with Graham Potter how do I speak the scrutiny of

over how he looks even. There was all this reporting about this glow up that he had at Chelsea and he changed his clothes and his hair and his beard. You'd know about that, wouldn't you? It's my forte. Not too dissimilar to David Moyes. You may have been there, Ian. I went to his press conferences at Carrington when he got the Man United job. And he...

he was just a little bit less at ease holding court as Manchester United manager again I really like David Moyes so you know this is not uncomplimentary he was more red faced there was more angst he responded to many more questions with hostility at Manchester United than he did when I spoke to him or was in his presence at Everton where it just seemed his domain and to me

today when I watch some of his answers on TV, Graham Potter, it looked like he was more back in his domain, like he was at Brighton and wasn't at Chelsea. But just in terms of the pressure that will be on him, I think there's a greater comparison to Chelsea than to Brighton.

Okay, Liam, you spoke about being balanced, Graham Potter, in the press conference and the fact that he's arrived mid-season as well. What effect do you think that's going to have on him putting his philosophy across to this group of players? Yeah, it's difficult. You've got to not see out the season, but you've got to win games and get points. I think one of the biggest tests for him is after the Villa game and the Cup, he's got five London derbies and six Premier League games to start off with.

He didn't deal with London Arbys particularly well at Chelsea. They weren't great. Again, they've often been tight games. And one of the only real critiques from his time at Brighton is he never beat Palace in a rivalry there either, which is sort of small compared to all the progress that he did have. But often he was really good at making a team effective, strong, cohesive, adaptable most of the time.

I think it was easy to then say, oh, sort of not nasty enough or sort of too nice. But I think they just weren't often clinical enough sort of in both boxes and were often better between both boxes. So I think that that's a real test for him as much as West Ham, because West Ham haven't been phenomenal in those games either, particularly when they've played sort of Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, big teams, especially I think Spurs this season really blew them away at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. So that I think for Potter as much as West Ham is huge as a starting point of a schedule. Roshan, final point on the podcast.

How do you think West Ham fans are going to receive this appointment? No, they're very optimistic about what Graham Potter can achieve. The reaction on social media has been really good. The reaction on the West Ham forums that I read regularly has been really good as well. It's just the hope that he can replicate something similar to what David Moyes achieved. In Graham Potter's interview with the club's in-house media, he said, you don't win a European trophy by fluke. There's a good bedrock at the club and support that we build on from it. And just to add on to what Liam said,

Graham Potter said one of the first priorities he wants to do as head coach is to improve the defence because defence has been very poor this season. We conceded 39 goals, which is the third highest in the league. And I believe it's...

West Ham can see the three or more goals eight times a season. So that's definitely an area he has to work on for sure. But look, the signs are there that it'll be a really good appointment and hopefully he can replicate something similar to what Moistube did. Yeah, the defence certainly sounds like a day one problem, doesn't it, when you put it in those terms. Roshane, Liam, David, thank you all of you for being with us on the Athletic FC podcast. Needless to say, there's loads of brilliant writing on the decision to appoint Graham Potter for West Ham on the Athletic right now. There's also, of course, with the Dranew transfer window being open,

Thanks for your company. Thanks for listening. And we'll see you on the next one. Bye-bye.

You've been listening to the Athletic FC podcast. The producers were Guy Clark, Mike Stavrou and Jay Beal. The executive producer was Aidy Moorhead. To listen to other great athletic podcasts for free, search for The Athletic on Apple, Spotify and all the usual places. The Athletic FC podcast is an Athletic Media Company production. The Athletic FC podcast network.

Hey, sports podcast fans. Did you know Discover is accepted in 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide? That's right, 99%. And every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. That could mean earnings rewards when you buy those last-minute tickets, those overpriced concessions, and that takeout you ate at home after you bailed on meeting your buddies at the bar.

Well, wherever you spend game day, remember, it pays to discover. Based on the February 2024 Nielsen Report, learn more at discover.com slash credit card. Hey, everyone. It's Robert Mace. The NFL playoffs are here, and we've got you covered on The Athletic Football Show. From wildcard weekend all the way through Super Bowl 59, my co-host Derek Klassen and I will guide you through every game, matchup, and big-time performance on the way to one team lifting the Lombardi Trophy in New Orleans. Catch The Athletic Football Show wherever you listen to podcasts.