MusaJulen Lopetegui has to save the West Ham manager’s job after reports of upcoming games against Newcastle United and Arsenal.
The Hammers, who finished ninth in the Premier League last season, have made a poor start to the new campaign under Lopetegui’s leadership, currently 14th in the standings.
West Ham have won only two of their last ten games in all competitions, while Lopetegui is fighting for his job, and now Jacob Steinberg insists in The Guardian that he “needs results” against Arsenal and Newcastle if he wants to stay at the London Stadium.
In other words, Lopetegui has “two games to save his job” and West Ham’s board will “use the international break to explore possible replacements”.
West Ham are still “clinging to hope that the Spaniard will be able to turn the situation around, faith in the manager is waning and there is a serious possibility that he could be sacked this month”.
“It is understood that a lot will depend on how West Ham perform when they host Newcastle on Monday and Arsenal on Saturday. Defeats in those games are likely to have serious consequences for Lopetegui, who is under a lot of pressure after a poor start. There is even a possibility that Newcastle could force West Ham with a heavy defeat.
“David Sullivan, West Ham’s biggest shareholder, was reluctant to sack him mid-season. But there is growing concern about results under Lopetegui’s leadership and it is understood that talks have been held about a replacement.
Although he is not thought to be in contention for the job, former Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag is currently the bookmakers’ fourth favourite to take over, and Steinberg claims that West Ham have “looked at former Borussia Dortmund manager Edin Terzic, and also checked internally on former Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand, ex-Benfica coach Roger Schmidt and Stuttgart’s Sebastian Hoeness”.
Former West Ham striker Teddy Sheringham was disappointed with what he has seen so far from Lopetegui at the London Stadium.
Asked whether West Ham had sold a nonsense with Lopetegui, Sheringham told Best Offshore Sportsbooks: ‘Julen Lopetegui is still a question mark for me. They went out and got their man and there were doubts about their man before.
“You know, he’s been in the Premier League for a short time and he didn’t make too much of an impression at Wolves. Is he the right man? I don’t know. They put all their eggs in one basket. They persecuted him and gave him a lot of money to spend.
“Things haven’t changed to any great extent that West Ham fans can say: ‘No, stay with him, he’s our man’.” They are still not playing great football; they are playing cautious football with too many defensive midfielders in the middle of the park and they are not impressing the crowd. Although they have some interesting players in their team, they have not been great. So they are questionable, and on a big scale.”
On whether he thinks Lopetegui can turn things around at West Ham, Sheringham added: “I’m not as optimistic about him as I am about Postecoglou. He doesn’t lift seats. West Ham fans don’t go to the game excited about what they can see. The atmosphere is like, ‘Gosh, what are we going to get today?'”
Musa
Kwaghterna Garshagu
