And so the farce continues. The reign of Graham Potter has ended. Not at the start of a week, but two days before our next game.
After completing a full week's training with the squad, prepping them for the trip to Everton, then handling the Friday pre-match conference.It may have been the press conference the finally put the final nail in the coffin for Potter. His demeanour and comments, referring to internal issues, look to have been the last straw for our board.
God forbid results being all that matters. Allude to disharmony and issues elsewhere? Yep, that’s when you pull the trigger.
Graham leaves us with statistically the worst record of any full-time manager of our beloved club. A club which, from being a place synonymous with stability and longevity has announced its fourth manager in less than 18 months.
Yes, of course form has been poor. The players looked largely unable to string cohesive periods of 30 minutes play, let alone a whole game, or a string of them. But league-wise, the club has been struggling since the final 18 months of David Moyes' tenure.
Potter is just the latest figurehead of a club who has imploded since the last champagne cork in Prague hit terra firma. The chairman extinguishing joy within 24 hours regarding the future of Declan Rice.
The European journey apart, the final year of Moyes was a hard watch leading to growing disappointment from fans. His eventual replacement, Julen Lopetegui, brought nothing but inertia and confusion, instead of his brief to bring a more expansive style.
His reign was uninspiring and short. So in came Potter in a bid to get a tune out of an unbalanced and disjointed squad. Despite improving us away from home, at the London Stadium we were dire.
He was offered the opportunity to continue. Coach a full pre-season. Build his own set of players, coaching and recruitment staff. Sadly, apart from a 30 minute spell against Forest, we’ve looked awful. And thus, here we are - looking for a new leader.
Nuno Esprinto Santo is an engaging man. He did well at Wolves and Nottingham Forest - and is the boss of the only club we’ve managed to better this season.
He's a manager who prefers a Moyes-like, counter-attacking style. And since Moyes left, the club have invested considerable funds to build a team that plays nothing like that system. Basically, we're back to square one.
Hundreds of millions have been spent on severance pay, transfers, backroom staff etc etc for a squad and leadership style completely at opposites to what we wanted or suited to what we're due to have.
Only at West Ham could we do this, instead of having foresight and a plan. The board's quest not to actually pay for a manager to build from, instead of employing unemployed, cheap options, could lead to costing us millions of pounds more than is necessary.
This circus of David Sullivan’s is once again dragging West Ham United's name through the mud. Nuno thinks Evangelos Marinakis was difficult to work for; watch your back, sunshine.
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