The appointment of Julen Lopetegui was a poor one, as it turned out, but one that was always destined to fail.
Destined to fail due to the way our club continues to operate, despite repeated examples of it not being the right way to run a football club.We have a chairman in David Sullivan who simply refuses to appoint a coach and let him get on with the job, instead interfering in the signing of players and imposing a structure that in the end suited neither this head coach, or the previous manager.
To have to dismiss a coach/manager after just 22 competitive matches at a minimum cost of £3.3m - to offload his backroom staff will be a futher cost - along with a diminishing of the club's reputation is as clear an example of boardroom incompetence as you will ever see.
To do so though in a way that has seen a three-day soap opera play out really is beyond parody. Quite literally, only at West Ham. An absolutely disgraceful episode in the club's history, notwithstanding the fact the outgoing coach frequently failed to help himself.
Tellingly though, there were few - if any - voices of support in Lopetegui's corner. Tales of halftime dust-ups with players and a broken relationship with Technical Director Tim Steidten paint a picture of an ugly power struggle that helped nobody.
Inevitably, Lopetegui has departed, but he wont be alone in that. Tim Steidten, as sure as night follows day will leave the club and in his wake, a trail of destruction and broken trust.
Never forget he was the person the club chose over the manager who had delivered our only trophy in over 40 years. To have failed so spectacularly in his relationship with that manager's replacement is unforgivable. He simply has to go.
The one other person who should go with them is of course the master of disaster, David Sullivan. Sadly, he will cling on, for now, but surely he too is on borrowed time.
He got lucky when he went back cap in hand to a manager he had too readily, and unfairly, already let go. To then let him go a second time, and see his replacement fail after a summer spend of £109m, with a further £35m on tick, is an unmitigated disaster.
Other investors in the club, the silent 62%, wont be impressed.
Graham Potter, should he be confirmed as Lopetegui's successor later tonight or tomorrow morning, will be David Sullivan's eighth managerial change in 14 years as Chairman. Even cats only get nine lives.
We are long past the point where the train set needs a new station master.
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