Forum | General Discussion

The 'Strange Days' are over and have finally found Lopetegui, It appears that after all the drama, articles and many rumours, Lopetegui's lives have finally run out.

After weeks of complaints and consistent batterings, the Manchester City game looks like it was the final straw for the Spaniard.

These past two days have been hectic when it comes to the media, about every five minutes you're seeing something new, and as someone who currently has little to no access to WiFi, it is incredibly comical.

I woke up this morning to find out that Graham Potter wasn't happy with his contract offer from us and had now decided to join Everton. Yet, I was then met with a pleasant surprise a few hours later that we'd managed to agree on a deal. Oh, did I forget to mention that amidst all of this, we were also linked to Paulo Fonseca... again, as well as Christophe Galtier.

However, after all the dreadful rumours, it highly looks like Graham Potter will be the new manager of West Ham United. This is rumoured to happen within the next 24/48hrs, but nothing is guaranteed with West Ham. Sully is known to not like an interim manager so Lopetegui or Potter will be in charge of the game against Aston Villa, I sincerely hope, for the sake of fans, as well as Lopetegui himself, that he is put out of his misery and the club finally decide to release him of his duties.

Evidently, the club have its eyes set on sacking Lopetegui, they would just clearly like to have a replacement right away, which would probably be announced on the same day as the imminent corner flag post.

Unfortunately, sometimes these stories end like this: it was an ugly and bumpy ride. However, it is one that was sadly expected. The expectations weren't exactly high when Lopetegui joined; he was taking over a fanbase which was already very detached, but with what seemed like a great window, all was thought to be good and well. The season started rough, and it just got worse and worse from there.

Lopetegui had many moments where it all went wrong, yet the owners decided to delay the inevitable and keep pushing on with him. Just the nine goals conceded in two games and the threat of relegation looming upon us finally was enough for the board to reconsider.

The person behind the charge for Graham Potter is Karren Brady; she has been demanding the board to push for a deal to get him. Around a month ago, it was announced that Potter was interested in the job and was happy with a short-term contract, seemingly appearing to be the perfect candidate for the club and Sully himself.

Now, one slight problem in all of this... Lopetegui isn't actually sacked yet, despite Talksport suggesting TWICE that Lopetegui has been sacked, yet nothing seems to have been confirmed by the club yet.

The clubs had a dinner bonding meal planned. However, it was cancelled as Lopetegui was keen to know where he stood in all of this, which is another thing that needs to be mentioned.

No matter what you think of Lopetegui, it is what can only be described as disgraceful how the club are treating him. His father has recently passed away, he is currently in mourning and the club is treating him like he's been sacked already. Why not just sack him now and end the constant draining speculation? I think it is an utter disappointment how this is all going, IF he is to be sacked, I sincerely wish him the best in his future managing endeavours.

He may have been a poor manager for us, but he is still a human at the end of the day.

Not only did we have to endure the fact that we lost 4-1 and have now conceded nine goals within our last two match-weeks, but we also had to deal with the broadcaster's insinuation of managers that could take over if Lopetegui was to be sacked.

With pressure mounting over him, the manager 'not so merry rumours'-goes-round. Two big names that have been thrown around as potential replacements for the manager are David Moyes and Steve Cooper. Both of these managers are available for free and they were both in attendance for the game against Manchester City. It isn't specifically known why both managers were there. However, it is common to see unemployed managers at other teams' matches.

This was last seen with Wolves when pressure was mounting upon O'Neil and Ole Gunnar Solskjær was in attendance, yet he didn't end up even being a serious candidate for the job.

A few other names have also been mentioned, like Graham Potter and Michael Carrick, yet both will involve paying a fair bit of money, which Sully isn't too keen on doing. It appears that free managers are going to be the way we go IF Julen was sacked. With pressure building up after another battering, a defeat to Aston Villa, which would see us crashing out of the FA Cup, could be the final straw for him.

The broadcasting companies love to cause drama and feed thoughts to the fans, if we're being honest with ourselves here, Steve Cooper nor David Moyes will be considered for the job, in reality, it is something that simply wouldn't work. Surely, the board can clearly see that Cooper doesn't even have the ability to survive a relegation fight, this was literally shown this season through his sacking at Leicester.

And with David Moyes, despite the success we had together in the final season, it feels that so many bridges were burnt, fans had been protesting to get him out, and hefty defeats to Fulham, Chelsea and Arsenal caused things to get ugly very quickly.

In honest reality, we will most likely end up getting a manager for free, or perhaps if we are lucky, we might buy a manager but only for a cheap price, our history in hiring speaks for itself. Not to mention, there is also a relatively high chance that we just keep Lopetegui for the remainder of the season, but it would be surprising if that outcome happened, considering how our form has been.

Unfortunately for Lopetegui, the loss against Manchester City has now officially given him a worse win percentage than what Avram Grant had during THAT relegation season in 2010/11... the worrying signs continue.