Karren Brady explains Graham Potter decision as West Ham expectation made clear. West Ham opted to appoint Graham Potter following the sacking of Julen Lopetegui.
As a whole, West Ham have endured a fairly horrid campaign with much of that failure down to the lack of know-how from Lopetegui.
The Spaniard was rightfully sacked at the London Stadium before the Hammers opted to move for Potter who had been out of work since his sacking from Chelsea back in 2023.
David Moyes was briefly mooted for a return to West Ham but the ex-Brighton coach was believed to be the number one target for the Irons and succeeded in appointing him.
Karren Brady makes Europe ambition clear to Potter
The appointment of Potter was met with plenty of excitement given the success he had found in a similar position with Brighton.
His job at Chelsea will be deemed as a failure by many but given the state of the club over the past few years, it seems harsh to tarnish his reputation as a result of that.
However, Brady has spoken out about the positive influence Potter has already at West Ham despite only being appointed just over a month ago.
She did, though, make it clear that with the club having won the Europa Conference League in 2023 there is an expectation to once more be competing in Europe.
Speaking via The Boardroom from Sky Sports (19 February), Brady said: “We met a few people and Graham stood out. He’s so articulate, so clear in his thinking, so clear in what needed to be done to improve the team and we’d spent so much money last summer, £160million on bringing in new players and we felt that someone needed to get more out of them.
“What you really want a manager to do is to get every player playing to their best potential, to get every player improving, to have clear communication, to have great morale and we made a change and Graham has come in and had an instant impact in the way that we play, the energy, the organisation.
“He’s really clear on things that are important to us and I think to our supporters at the academy has to be a central part of everything that we do. Improving players, having good communications with the supporters.
“He understands that there’s an expectation, we talked about Prague and what we want to achieve, he understands there’s an expectation and he understands that he has to deliver that. He’s a good communicator, he’s really clear on what he wants to achieve and he’s a joy to work with.”
Quite frankly, it’s hard to expect to see too much difference in performances and results with Potter having only been in charge for a little over a month, but things do need to improve.
Lopetegui lost his job after a series of bad results which had West Ham looking over their shoulders and should Potter fail to learn from that, it could follow a similar trend.
Fixtures aren’t getting much easier for the Irons either with an away encounter against Arsenal not long followed by a clash with Newcastle, two teams hoping for a top-four finish.
Just 10 points separate the Hammers from the bottom three, which at this stage makes a relegation battle look unlikely, but all it takes is for one result to go the wrong way and West Ham are back among it. One win from six is not a good look for Potter who will need to make some crucial changes in the coming weeks if results are to start flowing consistently at the London Stadium.
