Potter putting the 'United' back into West Ham

It’s been hard to be positive about West Ham over the opening months of a dreadful season. But Graham Potter has changed all that after just two games.

We’ve seen a season scarred by a board intent on screwing money out of kids and old folk, we’ve seen the appointment of a head coach utterly unfit for the job and we’ve seen a lauded transfer spree unravelling before our eyes, plus a nightmare of car crashes and major injuries. Welcome to West Ham, Graham!


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Now I know one - or even two - swallows don’t salvage a season, and there’s Crystal Palace, Aston Villa and Chelsea next, but Potter has won over the fans inside a week.

It's not just the level of performance amid a multitude of horrendous injuries, but it’s the whole demeanour of the place, the atmosphere obvious despite the FA Cup defeat at Villa and amplified before, during and after the victory over Fulham, that has most impressed.

The fans were exhausted by the incompetence of the previous regime and the constant horror results. We were not competitive and being systematically shredded by Premier League opponents who take no prisoners.

We were going to games expecting nothing more than a few beers with your mates. The decline of a club who were European quarter-finalists as recently as April, had drained us all of enthusiasm and positivity.

But Potter has confronted the main issues head on. He’s handled the lack of all our strikers calmly as problems that can be solved.

When you hear rumours that Julen Lopetegui’s grasp of English was so poor that he used a coach to translate, and that even then players were finding it so difficult to engage with the head coach that Mark Noble was needed to intervene, then you can gauge the depth of players concerns and frustrations.

You hear stories that they would practice a new system all week and then find everything was changed at the last moment. I was never keen on Lopetegui from the start and have frequently expressed that opinion here - I'm sure you’ve noticed. His CV didn’t bear much scrutiny.


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He walked out of Wolves and Spain and was sacked by Real Madrid after 14 matches. The alarm bells should have been ringing and owner David Sullivan should not have allowed himself to be persuaded to employ the cheapest option.

We have wasted a season, one that could be salvaged, marginally, if Potter continues in this current vein.

He needed to address a fractured dressing room, crumbling team spirit, a lack of confidence and belief. Morale was poor, the work ethic was absent and even that much needed friendship and comradeship every team needs.

Potter has stamped his authority on the squad. Those that are injured support the team, those that are not in the match day squad support the team, those substitutes that don’t get on support the team. Those that do get on work and fight for the cause.

And interestingly, the coach - who has a degree in social sciences and emotional intelligence - seems to ‘get’ us and this club. I'm not sure I understood what that last bit meant abut emotions, but I do now after watching him in operation.

He is quick to praise the fringe players, to make them feel as important as the big stars. You can see the unity on the faces of these players now, and it shows in the two performances.

The FA Cup defeat produced the best hour of organisation, solid planning and competitiveness all season. The defeat was caused by two serious injuries and an appalling refereeing mistake over the corner that never was.


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Against Fulham, who were nine games unbeaten, it was all about fight, spirit, running and doing your job. Lucas Paqueta, as a false nine did more running in one game than has all season, 50 touches of the ball. Teenager Ollie Scarles, thrown on for those final, frantic closing minute, knocked one off the line and hurled himself at the follow up to force an error. His team mates loved it.

Edson Alvarez had his best game of the season. And when Carlos Soler netted the first, Potter went straight down the line to praise Alvarez for running 30 yards to press Andreas Pereira into that panic cross-box pass. It’s little things like that that are important and players appreciate.

And then Potter withdrew a flagging Mo Kudus and pointedly told the media it was to protect him for Saturday’s game with Palace after his exertions at Villa Park. On comes whipping boy Danny Ings to force Bernd Leno into the mistake that gave Paqueta the winner. Potter could be described as a lucky manager after that, as many were already questioning the substitution.

These seem minor incidents in the great scheme of things, but they give the impression that Potter is right across the details, where it was clearly obvious that Lopetegui never was. The more you look at what has happened this week, the more you realise what a mess the first half of the season has been.

Potter obviously talks well to his players as he does to us and to the media. It’s articulate - that’s something new - he makes sense and breeds confidence.

Clearly things will get harder, there will be defeats, but I doubt we will be left with that feeling of inevitability, that sad disillusion.

So there’s my bit of positivity for the season. Many of us like what we are seeing and the players seem to have re-acquired that collective responsibility and confidence. West Ham re-United, you could say. And I will not be taking any questions if we lose on Saturday and then at Villa!

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