West Ham manager in danger of sack.

West Ham manager in danger of sack. 

Last night West Ham manager Julen Lopetegui was on the verge of being sacked. Now where have we heard that one before? The precarious nature of football management is such that you have to worry for their welfare and livelihood. It can be a lonely business, traipsing up and down the touchlines, hands in pockets, grinning, despairing, grimacing, pacing up and down, lowering your head and then burying it in despair when their team are playing awfully and nobody cares about them. 

For much of the first half of the season, Lopetegui has carried the air of a condemned man, resigned to the worst of all fates and questioning his own experience and prowess. In short, Lopetegui's first encounter with the team from East London has been nothing short of horrendous. The genial Spaniard is, of course, a decent and honourable man and he has been moderately successful with both Sevilla and Real Madrid in a coaching capacity but even after a brief spell with Wolves, this has not gone well for Lopetegui. 

At the end of the last season, West Ham bid farewell to David Moyes after the Scotsman had left the indelible legacy of a UEFA Conference trophy and a notable European achievement. Moyes also oversaw top half Premier League finishes in three consecutive seasons while not forgetting a Europa League campaign. So it was a case of parting with such sweet sorrow because, essentially, Moyes had been one of the most successful managers in West Ham's recent history. 

But when the air had cleared and Moyes was gone, West Ham eventually came across a man they thought they could trust, a foreign manager with an educated, cerebral footballing mind firmly committed to studious, possession based football and whose attacking principles were second to none. Sadly, after only half a season, West Ham have now discovered that the decision to appoint Lopetegui was both ill advised, rash and completely wrong. 

After only six wins thus far in the Premier League, West Ham are now looking up at the others around them in a lowly 14th place and wondering exactly whether a grenade might have gone off when least expected. Besides, West Ham are now, allegedly, a big time club with European aspirations, a club to be regarded as genuine contenders for beautiful trophies and global recognition. Now though, there are worried frowns around the London Stadium and the dormant fear that somebody will mention relegation to the Championship at some point, is never far from the debating chambers and discussion rooms of social media.  

But football is a cruel, heartless and unforgiving sport where only the survival of the fittest counts and even the greatest can fall from grace within a flicker of an eyelid. Manchester United, surely one of the wealthiest and most glamorous clubs in the world game for many a decade, are a classic example of what happens when you lose a much loved manager and find it impossible to replace him. Like West Ham, United are struggling under duress, fighting desperately to keep their battered morale and ego in one piece.

On Sunday, Manchester United went up to Anfield and gained a valuable point against Premier League leaders and pace setters Liverpool, when all the odds were stacked against them. Recently, their Dutch manager Erik Ten Hag was booted out of the club after failing to understand the fundamental values and ridiculously high standards that United have set over the years. United's new manager Ruben Amorim is the latest candidate at Old Trafford to face the firing squad. The Stretford End will not tolerate average performances and mediocrity. Only genius and consistent excellence will be the only stipulation at United. It's written in stone and the statements are carved into their archives. 

For West Ham though, a club that once prided itself on remaining loyal to their managers through thick and thin, are now hiring and firing on a fairly regular basis. In the last 25 years, the club have seen come and go the esteemed likes of Harry Redknapp, a coach and manager of the highest order. Then there was the late and much missed Glen Roeder preceded by Lou Macari, Billy Bonds, Avram Grant, Gianfranco Zola and Sam Allardyce. The gallery of the great, good and totally forgettable have passed through the hallowed corridors of Upton Park, West Ham's once adorable old ground and those in the know have sighed mournfully.

Yesterday, Julen Lopetegui faced up to the inevitable prospect of being fired for both his managerial incompetence and complete lack of any kind of leadership at the club. The Spaniard has simply misunderstood his role at West Ham, muddling through the early months of the season with players who just weren't responding to both his tactics and less than desirable approach to management. When the early home defeats to both Aston Villa, Chelsea and Manchester City punctured a massive hole in their ambitious plans for the season, everything just fell apart at the seams for the Hammers. 

Another heavy thrashing at home to Liverpool in a 5-0 defeat at the London Stadium led to yet more rumblings of discontent in the East End. There was the 5-2 home defeat to Arsenal, the even more humiliating 3-0 defeat at Leicester City and on Saturday, another demolition at the Etihad. Their 4-1 defeat to Premier League champions Manchester City may be the final door to be slammed in Lopetegui's face. Nine goals have been conceded in two consecutive games and slowly patience is wearing thin behind the scenes at West Ham. 

For those who grew up with the stability and continuity of Ron Greenwood, who spent 20 years at West Ham and then the much under rated John Lyall, the more up to date developments at the club have been truly disturbing. Managers can never be seen to do the right thing whoever they are but at least Greenwood gave the club a real sense of direction, a steadying rudder to keep West Ham afloat. Regrettably, Greenwood spent too much of his time, extinguishing potential fires, wrestling with a relegation haunted team and permanently fending off accusations of inadequacy and unfulfilled potential. 

True, Greenwood did taste FA Cup winning success in 1964 when West Ham beat Preston North End in the FA Cup Final. Ronny Boyce's last gasp winning goal clinched the Cup for West Ham. The following year Greenwood enjoyed perhaps his finest hour. West Ham had conquered most of Europe in the European Cup Winners Cup and their 2-0 victory against German side TSV Munich 1860 in that famous Final at Wembley in 1965 probably gave Greenwood much more pleasure than any of us could have imagined. But for the next 13 years he was just unable to take the club much further forward and, after a couple of seasons of hardship and unproductive toil and trouble, West Ham were relegated to the old Second Division.

The managerial qualities of John Lyall were, more or less, a surprising discovery, serendipity personified. Lyall was the local boy whose playing career had been unfortunately brought to an end by injury and was now installed as manager. For those of us who were just privileged to be there on the night, West Ham's final match of the season at home to Ipswich Town, will live long in the memory. In 1986, West Ham almost won the old League Championship and in hindsight, it still feels like some weird dream that almost came true. A 2-1 win to West Ham against the Tractor Boys was thoroughly deserved but then Liverpool and Everton intervened and West Ham finished the season third in the old First Division.

Now though after employing a number of foreign coaches including the inexplicably morose Israeli Avram Grant, West Ham are back at square one. The chances are that Lopetegui will leave West Ham under a cloud of disgrace after a series of embarrassingly heavy defeats. Nobody likes seeing a fair minded and respectable man suffer in this way because the Spaniard has probably made more friends than enemies at the club. 

But there's an internal dissent and disconnect between Tim Steiden, the club's technical director and go between and management, the smell a repulsive one. Nine players were bought during last summer and none have really hit the ground running apart from perhaps Aaron Wan Bissaka, the full back with a genuine turn of pace and a natural ability to deliver an accurate cross into the six yard box. The rest though are, more or less stuck in glutinous, gooey treacle, promising at times but about as useless as a chocolate tea pot in the important games. 

Brian Clough, that notable miracle worker, eloquent after dinner speaker and splendidly opinionated manager of Derby County and Nottingham Forest, was ruthlessly no nonsense and dogmatic. On the subject of chairmen and bossy know it alls, Clough once said, at Brighton, if memory serves you correctly, that he would gather around a table for a discussion with his chairman, and, after much deliberation, would decide he was always right and should never be contradicted. 

Nowadays loyalty is almost non existent to any new, incoming manager and the days of Ron Greenwood, Bill Nicholson, Bill Shankly and Dario Gradi at Crewe, are almost as antiquated as trams or horse drawn carriages even Victorian barouches. Contracts signed with good intentions are about as meaningless as the paper they're written on. Managers are marketable commodities with a fairly limited shelf life and it does seem possible that there are times when they'd be forgiven for seeing red. 

Julen Lopetegui will no doubt settle down, having left West Ham, with a late night cup of coffee and a classic recording from John Coltrane, reflective jazz oozing from his downloaded music collection. Or maybe he'll shake his head aggressively at both sides of an AC DC or Def Leppard heavy rock riff album. Managing a football club has always been an emotionally demanding ordeal and you have to get it out of your system somehow. Perhaps the truth is that Lopetegui has probably had enough of the Premier League for the time being. If that were the case then you could hardly blame him.