Inside Graham Potter’s plan to break the mould at West Ham
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The West Ham managerial post does not tend to be advertised with a honeymoon period. David Moyes waded into a relegation battle on both occasions he took the job. Julen Lopetegui had Lucas Paqueta’s FA charge for alleged gambling offences slide across his desk five hours after he was unveiled. For Graham Potter, it lasted five minutes at a push.
That is all there was at Villa Park last Friday, between a wonderful first goal of the new era, scored by Paqueta, and Niclas Fullkrug’s injury. Tied up in the sad sight of Fullkrug hobbling off, his hamstring so thoroughly twanged as to make even that an excruciating act, was a reminder why this is no ordinary job.
Recent recruitment has been bad, Potter’s squad is thin and at times West Ham have the feel of a club where too much stuff just seems to happen. The scene, though, also hinted at West Ham’s potential. Whatever Fullkrug’s faults, and the questionable merits of giving a 31-year-old a four-year deal, it still takes a club of stature to tempt Germany’s No9, whose goals had helped fire Borussia Dortmund to the Champions League final only weeks before.
Potter felt the pull himself, having turned down several illustrious European jobs before saying yes to co-chairman David Sullivan’s call. Therein lies the twin challenge of Potter’s reign. His first act must be to stabilise and correct so much of what went wrong in the final months of Moyes’s tenure and the disastrous six for which Lopetegui had the helm.
But to truly succeed in east London, he must kick on, to deliver on the ambition of a club that won a European trophy barely 18 months ago and sees itself, with its 60,000-seat stadium, Premier League coin and London advantages, as having all the tools to compete on loftier terms.
