[Albion] Potter- what’s he up to? (Managing West Ham from 9 Jan)

[FloatLeft]

Good luck to him and I'll look forward to some serious booing when April rolls around.

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

I'm no fan of Potter. He left us in the lurch six games into a season. But I heard a story about him yesterday from a non football person.

Potter and my sauce have mutual close friends. These friends have holidayed with the Potters for years. For the last couple of years Graham has picked up the bill for the holiday home. He has no need to and it's not a billy-big-ballocks move. It's just a generous gesture.

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

Ifs and buts. The fact is West Ham have just sacked a manager after only 6 months demonstrating their much vaunted "patience." Potter will not get the time he desires and will be a failure as a result. Hell, they tried to give him a 6 month contract because even they know.

Potter will never again have it as good or easy as he had it here. A more patient fanbase in the prem do not exist.

I don't know where this idea that West Ham are a patient club has come from. Under the ownership of Sullivan (and Gold) they've sacked Avram Grant, Moyes (first time round) and now Lopetegui in less than a season. Pellegrini got a season and a half.

Only Billic, Big Sam and Moyes second time around have got a decent amount of time, all 3 of them got West Ham into Europe, Moyes for 3 consecutive seasons and won the Conference League, Big Sam left before he could manage them in Europe though as West Ham didn't renew his contract after a 12th place finish (they qualified through the fair play league).

The only way Potter gets time is if he hits the ground running. At the very least their aim for the rest of this season must be to be in contention for a top half finish. They won't accept him maintaining the status quo and a 14th place finish.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

Top manager, quality appointment, he’ll do really well there.

I don’t buy the needing time bollocks either, he transformed us in no time at all. I’ll never forget how much extraordinarily better we were at the start of the 2019/2020 season starting in his first game away to Watford compared to the previous season under Hughton.

We played brilliant football from when he started and throughout his time with us, early on we just didn’t have any luck in a lot of games and we were relying on Neal Maupay up front for too long.

I expect them to finish ahead of us this season now.

 

[Springal]

Top manager, quality appointment, he’ll do really well there.

I don’t buy the needing time bollocks either, he transformed us in no time at all. I’ll never forget how much extraordinarily better we were at the start of the 2019/2020 season starting in his first game away to Watford compared to the previous season under Hughton.

We played brilliant football from when he started and throughout his time with us, early on we just didn’t have any luck in a lot of games and we were relying on Neal Maupay up front for too long.

I expect them to finish ahead of us this season now.

100% - club let him down when Maupay, Connolly & Zequiri were out striking options.

 

[Chicken Run]

I expect them to finish ahead of us this season now.

Yeah whatever

 

[Man of Harveys]

I'm no fan of Potter. He left us in the lurch six games into a season. But I heard a story about him yesterday from a non football person.

Potter and my sauce have mutual close friends. These friends have holidayed with the Potters for years. For the last couple of years Graham has picked up the bill for the holiday home. He has no need to and it's not a billy-big-ballocks move. It's just a generous gesture.

Wow. I mean, sainthood beckons. Especially when he’s so hard up.

 

[Professor Plum]

I'm no fan of Potter. He left us in the lurch six games into a season. But I heard a story about him yesterday from a non football person.

Potter and my sauce have mutual close friends. These friends have holidayed with the Potters for years. For the last couple of years Graham has picked up the bill for the holiday home. He has no need to and it's not a billy-big-ballocks move. It's just a generous gesture.

It’s easy to be generous when you're sitting on a multi-million pound payoff.

 

[Silverhatch]

I don't disagree with your first paragraph, we didn't necessarily need to go back to a rookie manager and redo the Potter process this summer, yet we chased McKenna and then went for Fab. Maybe the club were just being a bit too clever at the time. An Ireola, a Silva, an Emery, maybe we could have got someone in that vein, I don't know. Its why me and many others wanted to get Potter back, he would have been perfect imo.

Still, we have Fab, and am thus going to back him, its very early days to say we are going to have to sit through a couple of seasons of average, he could be a lot better than that, we don't know - hence the calls for patience. And even if we're not patient, nothing is going to be achieved by some of the reactions here, he is going to be here for a while yet. And say Fab turns out to be the next Guardiola, the only way Brighton were ever going to get him at the helm was to strike early and take him while he is still raw. Thats where we are.

You cannot have a ‘manager’ with Tony’s approach. You have a coach to develop the players (i.e. a now known mix of potential & experience). We are not a big enough footballing institution to do it like everyone else. Barber is constantly telling anyone who’ll listen that they’ll be setbacks on the journey. Potter leaving was a big setback that gave us RDZ. The mad was/is an immense coach but a firebrand that NEEDED the club to change strategy to match HIS ambition. We were all seduced by his smouldering passion but knew deep down that he was TOO volatile and high maintenance (remember relationships like that; f***ing exciting but ultimately fleeting).

Good luck to GPott. A very good coach who put BHA in the conversation about the upper echelons of the PL. Get behind FH. He’s learning on the job, like we all are about following a top 10 Premier League club.

 

[nickjhs]

I do wonder if he ponders your last sentence occasionally, as a supposedly intelligent man, I am sure he has regrets on what he did, although the bank balance will help sooth any regrets.

Leaving as he did is forgivable, taking the back room staff with him is definitely not.

I cannot even forgive him leaving. Our club gave him everything he needed for a successful future in the pl, and he shat on us. Taking the back room staff and encouraging a legend to become a villain was just the diarrhoea topping to a shit cake

 

[Flounce]

I cannot even forgive him leaving. Our club gave him everything he needed for a successful future in the pl, and he shat on us. Taking the back room staff and encouraging a legend to become a villain was just the diarrhoea topping to a shit cake

Nobody turns down the money offered, the deal suggested and the chance to manage a recent CL winning club. Naive to expect it, hurtful as it may have been to us. Stripping the back room too absolutely stinks though, and to me shows a complete lack of confidence in his own ability deep down. He should have used people with Chelsea experience already at the club.

 

[Kosh]

GP already rubbing it in lol...

Football latest: Graham Potter named as West Ham boss

Graham Potter is named as West Ham manager plus reaction to Tottenham's win over Liverpool in the EFL Cup semi-final first leg.

www.bbc.co.uk

"I'm very excited, it's a very proud day, to be head coach of this amazing club, big tradition, big history, big expectations, big challenge. I'm excited, it's like Christmas for adults! Not the best of sleeps last night because of the excitement. I'm looking forward to meeting the players, fans and getting going."

 

[sakooshi]

It’s easy to be generous when you're sitting on a multi-million pound payoff.

Yeah, but some people wouldn't be, even then.

 

[RandyWanger]

Top top top top manager is Potter.

Lets not forget he oversaw a club-record 14 home games without a victory.
Albion’s worst ever start to a top flight season with 6 defeats in a row.
1 solitary win at the Amex in a whole calendar year (2020)
3 months without a win between September and Boxing Day (2021)
3 months without scoring at the Amex between January and April (2022)

Hope he does as well at West Ham.

 

[Beanstalk]

I'm no fan of Potter. He left us in the lurch six games into a season. But I heard a story about him yesterday from a non football person.

Potter and my sauce have mutual close friends. These friends have holidayed with the Potters for years. For the last couple of years Graham has picked up the bill for the holiday home. He has no need to and it's not a billy-big-ballocks move. It's just a generous gesture.

f***ing hell this is a weak sainthood. If I was picking up £200k a week to be out of work, I'd foot the bill for far more than a villa in Spain once a year. It's really not that generous to pay for a holiday when your annual salary is over £10m.

 

[oldboyroy]

GP already rubbing it in lol...

Football latest: Graham Potter named as West Ham boss

Graham Potter is named as West Ham manager plus reaction to Tottenham's win over Liverpool in the EFL Cup semi-final first leg.

www.bbc.co.uk

"I'm very excited, it's a very proud day, to be head coach of this amazing club, big tradition, big history, big expectations, big challenge. I'm excited, it's like Christmas for adults! Not the best of sleeps last night because of the excitement. I'm looking forward to meeting the players, fans and getting going."

Plenty of teeth sucking in that interview but joking aside, I wish him okay as long as we finish above them in the table(beat them too of course).

 

[Beanstalk]

I think this is probably the right fit for him. He'll get West Ham playing nice football and the fans will enjoy that for a year and a half but expect to step up in season 3.

Big question marks if he can do that or if he'll even get that far into the job. West Ham clearly didn't want to originally give him more than six months so I doubt he'll find the same patience that he was given at the Albion if he goes on one of his trademark losing streaks.

 

[chaileyjem]

I noticed this in the BBC piece
"Potter takes over with the Hammers 14th in the Premier League - seven points above the relegation zone - with just six league wins to their name."

Hurzeler has "just" 6 league wins...

 

[ROSM]

I'm genuinely not sure how this will work out.

When we played them in December it was one of the worst Premier league games I could ever recall. We weren't great and apart from kudus and bowen they looked even worse.

Surely he must be able to make them better than that? Albeit without bowen. How they buy in Jan will be key.

But we all know that he is fragile and at some point he will have a long winless run. How he reacts to the pressure from fans will be interesting. He was lucky that his worst runs under us came with no crowds in the ground

I also would say that he never really got how to set teams up for derby/rivalry type games and he has 4 or 5 of those London Derby games left this season to see through.

 

[ROSM]

I noticed this in the BBC piece
"Potter takes over with the Hammers 14th in the Premier League - seven points above the relegation zone - with just six league wins to their name."

Hurzeler has "just" 6 league wins...

Yes exactly