Former Hammer Teddy Sheringham believes Julen Lopetegui needs a positive sequence of results to save his job.
The Spanish coach goes into this weekend's trip to Newcastle United in the wake of a series of rumours regarding his position, following West Ham's disappointing start to the current campaign.And Sheringham admits that he is unsure whether Lopetegui will ever prove to be an able successor to Conference League winner David Moyes, whose departure last summer paved the way for Lopetegui.
"Question marks are still out for me on Lopetegui," confessed Sheringham, speaking with Best Offshore Sportsbooks. "They've gone out and got their man, but there were already question marks about their man in the first place.
"You know, he's been in the Premier League for a short spell of time and didn’t overly impress at Wolves. Is he the right man? I don't know. They've put all their eggs in one basket. They've chased him and given him a lot of money to spend.
"Things haven't changed on a major scale for West Ham fans to go, ‘No, stick with him, he's our man,’ They're still not playing great football; they’re playing cautious football with too many defensive midfield players in midfield and not really exciting the crowd. Even though they've got a few exciting players in their team, they've not been great. So, question marks out, big time.
"He's not getting bums off seats. You haven't got West Ham fans going to a game excited about what they might see. It's a vibe of, ‘Geez, what are we going to get today?’"
Meanwhile former Manchester City defender Richard Dunne believes Lopetegui heads the Premier League managerial sack race as we prepare to enter the final month of 2024.
Along with Crystal Palace’s struggling Oliver Glasner, Dunne believes the next man to face the chop is likely to be one or the other.
"I certainly think Julen Lopetegui at West Ham will be looking over his shoulder in terms of the sack race," he told Gambling Zone. "He’s under a bit of pressure because West Ham spent a fair bit of money in the summer.
"The expectations were higher than what we're seeing at the moment. With Crystal Palace struggling, it looks like Oliver Glasner could be in trouble as well, but it's so hard.
"I think the Premier League is, at both ends, probably going to be the tightest that we've seen for a long time. The likes of Crystal Palace and West Ham, we know they can go on good runs, we know they can get themselves out of trouble, so it's just finding that consistency and it seems at the start of the season there's a lot of teams that are missing.
"West Ham and Palace are not at their very best, but some of the best teams have been a bit inconsistent too. You see it at the top with Arsenal and Manchester City, and we're seeing it down the bottom with the likes of Wolves, Crystal Palace and a few other teams that we expected to be higher up the table.
"I'm sure all the club owners will be getting a little bit twitchy and anyone who's not winning games will be starting to feel the pressure. This is really the moment when the results become more important than performances, especially after this final international break this year. "
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