There goes Julen!

[sycophantia]

He did a good job keeping us up (comfortably in the end) but pissed me off with his attitude, however surely he's the best a team like West Ham could expect? wonder if his pragmatic style isn't seen as sexy enough for such a mighty club.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I'd imagine West Ham could easily get someone like Vincenzo Italiano and his football is a lot easier on the eye than Lopetegui's.

It's a bit of a lazy pick if they do go down that road and I'm not sure he'll get on with Pint Sized Dave, who still calls most of the shots.

 

[Tony Towner]

I'm not even sure he'll get better results with West Ham, they've benefited a bit from one of those weird seasons like when Lage was here, we finished 10th despite being horseshit for about 80% of the season and they'll probably do similar (they have been better than that, but you get my point).

Is Lopetegui going to elevate them far beyond that? I'm not sure he would. He'd probably have them around the same place and I'm far from convinced West Ham fans would say "at least it's better to watch".

Idiots ranting on as if he's Avram Grant II are patently miles wide of the mark but I can understand normal fans having reservations.

For this year's current Top 8 to not be next year's then something has got to go wrong for them. Newcastle have been injury ravaged, Utd and Chelsea by their standards shite, yet they are all going to make it. Maybe Villa with the CL may drop out, but if not realistically everyone else is playing for 9th and they are starting from there. He's a mercenary and will get paid well, but realistically he's in a no win situation beyond the money.

 

[Mel Evo]

I know I’m pretty much alone in thinking I’d rather he was still our manager, think he did a great job that’s dismissed way too easily (come on now!), and sniff a bit too much sour grapes in assessments of him when what he basically got the arse about with the owners, we all get the arse about too. I say that with plenty of Spanish friends not liking his football too.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I know I’m pretty much alone in thinking I’d rather he was still our manager, think he did a great job that’s dismissed way too easily (come on now!), and sniff a bit too much sour grapes in assessments of him when what he basically got the arse about with the owners, we all get the arse about too. I say that with plenty of Spanish friends not liking his football too.

He's a good manager overall and who knows what he could have built, but he should have realised that having already spent £90m on Collins, Nunes and Guedes (Christ fucking alive) in summer 2022 and then we gave him everything he wanted in January 2023...how the hell were we going to sustain that level of spending.

We're going to finish about 12th I reckon. I don't think he'd have done much better.

 

[sycophantia]

I know I’m pretty much alone in thinking I’d rather he was still our manager, think he did a great job that’s dismissed way too easily (come on now!), and sniff a bit too much sour grapes in assessments of him when what he basically got the arse about with the owners, we all get the arse about too. I say that with plenty of Spanish friends not liking his football too.

Yeah if he hadn't spat his dummy out, I'd have been happy for him to still be our coach.
I know our glorious leaders did him over (twice) but he really came across as an arrogant and consescending prick at the end of his tenure, fans will always turn on you if you behave like he did.

 

[Lupo]

I know I’m pretty much alone in thinking I’d rather he was still our manager

Nope. I was genuinely looking forward to a Lop rebuild this time last year once we were safe and felt as if the project wasn't dead after all having finally attracted the original 'Plan A' to the club after that chump Lage.

GO has done a good job, much better than expected but can't say I have the same sense of excitement and optimism this year

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Nope. I was genuinely looking forward to a Lop rebuild this time last year once we were safe and felt as if the project wasn't dead after all having finally attracted the original 'Plan A' to the club after that chump Lage.

GO has done a good job, much better than expected but can't say I have the same sense of excitement and optimism this year

But then Lopetegui was quite happy to sell/loan Ait-Nouri and sign Aaron Cresswell. I can't say I'm too keen on that idea.

Wanted Alex Scott too and I'm not sure he's the transformative player you'd want for £25m, he wouldn't even get in our team.

 

[Tony Towner]

I know I’m pretty much alone in thinking I’d rather he was still our manager, think he did a great job that’s dismissed way too easily (come on now!), and sniff a bit too much sour grapes in assessments of him when what he basically got the arse about with the owners, we all get the arse about too. I say that with plenty of Spanish friends not liking his football too.

He did the job he was paid to do and that's which really matters and I don't blame him for walking, although the stuff with Ballague was unedifying. I still had many questions about him at the end of the season. This is from the Arsenal verdict thread before the Summer shenanigans


If you take a broader perspective you see a winning pattern at home which is unsustainable, (not his fault),a series of lines ups away from home which set us up to fail, resulting in more half time substitutions I've seen from any manager, questionable man management skills, doesn’t play the player he specifically wanted and we are paying way over the odds for in as many games as he does, a team who have had no pride in at least 2 away performances leading to our heaviest defeats since coming up and his post match stuff about not being to re-sign Costa and Adama tipped him over the line for me of playing the media game to just looking petulant.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

his post match stuff about not being to re-sign Costa and Adama

Oh God, this annoyed me. And I'm sure he threw Moutinho into the mix too and Raul when we sold him.

You never used them, Mr Chinos. You can't have players earning £300k+ a week between them doing nothing.

 

[Lupo]

But then Lopetegui was quite happy to sell/loan Ait-Nouri and sign Aaron Cresswell. I can't say I'm too keen on that idea.

Wanted Alex Scott too and I'm not sure he's the transformative player you'd want for £25m, he wouldn't even get in our team.

Yeah the Aaron Cresswell thing certainly goes some way towards appeasing me! He will now get to work with him, though I believe we've been linked with him again

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Worth remembering he got absolutely nothing out of Neto while he was here and while Cunha was obviously acclimatising to the league, he didn't get much there either and frequently gave Sarabia 0 minutes.

In fact Podence was our best attacking player under Lopetegui and by quite a margin too.

 

[C.L.D]

Cresswell, come on. The club is still being linked to him, it's clear he's not a Lopetgui "pick". I bet he wouldn't even be able to pick him out of a line-up. The coaches have their own styles and formations they play but they're not the influential managers you think they are at Wolves, certainly not in the Fosun years.

 

[Kenny]

The latest link was a West Ham fan page wasn't it?

You know how rumours work....linked once and then its an easy story going forward


(Probably means we sign him now)

 

[PuntsWolf]

I do find it odd that JL is talked up as some kind of saviour and yet O Neil talked down.

JL did the job he was expected to do. Not doing so with the WC break, money spent and players available to him would have been a massive failure.

There’s not one player here now who JL didn’t have at his disposal. I didn’t particularly like Traore, Podence or Nunes but I’d rather have them than Doc and Bellegarde. Moutinho was on the wane (using him as some form of #10 didn’t help) but still had uses and of course we had Neves. DW and TT have listed the pros and cons above well.

He met the brief which I’d have expected him to do but didn’t exactly win style or charisma points along the way

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Lopetegui also benefited hugely from not being Lage.

 

[Mel Evo]

I do find it odd that JL is talked up as some kind of saviour and yet O Neil talked down.

JL did the job he was expected to do. Not doing so with the WC break, money spent and players available to him would have been a massive failure.

There’s not one player here now who JL didn’t have at his disposal. I didn’t particularly like Traore, Podence or Nunes but I’d rather have them than Doc and Bellegarde. Moutinho was on the wane (using him as some form of #10 didn’t help) but still had uses and of course we had Neves. DW and TT have listed the pros and cons above well.

He met the brief which I’d have expected him to do but didn’t exactly win style or charisma points along the way

Haven’t seen the GON being talked down bit on here but would agree with you if so. On the other hand though, he very much was some kind of saviour as he literally saved us, and if it ad that easy people would be doing it every year. They’re not.

 

[PuntsWolf]

Haven’t seen the GON being talked down bit on here but would agree with you if so. On the other hand though, he very much was some kind of saviour as he literally saved us, and if it ad that easy people would be doing it every year. They’re not.

Well it’s pretty unique circumstances. I don’t know of any club who retains a manager so clear out of his depth over a summer and then replaces him with someone even worse.

Then get a WC break to allow a new man to get to know his players and spend a heap of money in January?

 

[YoungWolf]

I find it weird that people play down him keeping us up. He got the money to spend in January, and the time during the World Cup yes but we had been an awful team for nearly two years really. With some pretty expensive flops still there. His PPG was very good too, even if performances didn’t always match results.

GON’s circumstances were very different, but has largely done a good job in spite of that despite some of my own reservations

 

[HanDoJin]

If he was promised tuppence to spend, I can see why Cresswell's name came up.