Graham Potter is sacked as West Ham manager

 Graham Potter is sacked as West Ham manager.

It had to happen because his position had become untenable. He looked like a man who had been tied together with a thick piece of rope and had no idea when he'd be released from captivity. For the last week or so now, former West Ham manager Graham Potter was walking on the most precarious tightrope, hovering over a tank of a piranha fishes. And to complete the metaphorical journey, Potter was also treading on hot coals before just relinquishing his duties because his West Ham team had been beaten too many times for the board's liking.

Last week- and probably a fortnight or two- Potter had gone to great lengths in stating that things had been tough and that West Ham were still looking for a solution to their problems. They were sticking together and pulling for each other, always hoping and never despairing. Then he discovered that he'd just hit a brick wall and could no longer resolve this crisis and had to fall on his sword. The metaphorical journey had ended.

At Friday lunchtime Potter took his seat at his club's weekly Press conference and repeated the same mantra over and over again. He knew West Ham were in the doldrums and struggling desperately but promised that, given time, this horrendous predicament would blow over eventually. But it has persisted and, as West Ham prepare for another vital Premier League encounter with Everton at the Hill Dickinson Stadium tomorrow, they must be aware of the magnitude of their thankless task. Potter has left the building but Nuno has arrived and the new manager must feel like a conductor of an orchestra who doesn't know whether he'll be able to get a tune out of his new ensemble. Somebody is bound to play a duff note on the piano. 

Since the beginning of the season Potter has been a marked man, a victim of circumstances who knew he'd be in relegation trouble because the summer transfer window had been a deplorable one. There was the acquisition of two centre forwards whose combined age was 60 plus, two midfielders who might just save the club and a defence that would crack open at free kicks and corners. 

So, after three successive London derby defeats to both Spurs, a heavy thrashing at home to Chelsea and last week's humiliating loss at home to Crystal Palace, West Ham are slowly sinking without trace. Around them, legions of otherwise loyal and trustworthy fans of the club are storming the barricades and voicing their dissatisfaction in no uncertain terms. Before the Premier League match at home to Crystal Palace, West Ham fans joined together in their droves, loudly protesting and demanding an immediate removal of owners David Sullivan and Karen Brady. 

It almost seemed a dreadful throwback to yesteryear when the wheels came off the West Ham wagon, form deserted the club, defeats multiplied and suddenly the sack of a manager became an occupational hazard rather than an inevitability. There seemed a brief summer hiatus when the signings were signed, sealed and delivered, the trip to America was moderately beneficial but then something went wrong. Despite the wins over Everton and Bournemouth in the United States, the machinery began to creak and there was an air of cynicism and morbidity about the club. You couldn't put your finger on it but it was there out in the open. 

The opening day of the season defeat at newly promoted Sunderland was perhaps forgivable because West Ham had never done particularly well on the first day of a new season. But then the club faced their first London derby against Chelsea and just collapsed, disintegrating like a wobbly old shelf in your living room. The 5-1 defeat at home to the Blues now looks like the darkest moment in the club's season thus far. There was no fight, bite, tenacity, resilience, guts or fortitude. By the end of this debacle, West Ham looked out on their feet and heading towards a painful post mortem. 

But now West Ham have appointed their latest manager Nuno Espirito Santo, a Portuguese gentleman who had recently been dumped unceremoniously by Nottingham Forest. The irony is of course that Nuno was in charge of Forest right up until Forest's 3-0 defeat to West Ham at the City Ground so we may be back in the land of deja vu. So the vicious circle revolved again. It's time to play the game of managerial pass the parcel and embark on a merry go round.

Where though do West Ham go from there? It does look a case of history repeating itself but then the club have been here before so this is no surprise at all. Before one game during the first David Moyes era, West Ham were hammered by fellow claret and blues Burnley 3-0 at the London Stadium. Half way through, a disgruntled West Ham fan ran onto the pitch and stuck a corner flag indignantly on the centre circle spot. 

West Ham were still regarded as a glamorous club rather but one who just muddled their way through the season and were just content with mid table mediocrity. Two years ago though Moyes, on one of the most glorious nights the club had ever experienced, got it absolutely right. West Ham met and beat Italian side Fiorentina in the last minutes of the UEFA Conference Final. West Ham had won a European trophy, the summit had been reached and everything had fallen into place. The celebrations that followed were something the club would never forget. This was the perfect pinnacle and the flag had been planted.

Perhaps the club has now been spoilt because none of us had realistically considered success at any level ever again. Now though the East London club are back at square one, wading in treacle, grasping at the nettle, perilously close to the bottom of the Premier League and looking for some kind benefactor to bail them out of their obvious plight. The fans voices are getting louder and if things don't change shortly and preferably immediately, there could be a monumental revolt. 

The club that had prided itself on its unwavering faith in their managers, has now racked up so many bosses that it barely seems possible. For well over 25 years, West Ham had in their possession two of the quietest and most charming footballing men in the history of the game. Ron Greenwood was a coach at Arsenal at the beginning of the 1960s.West Ham saw his burgeoning potential and snapped up Greenwood, who became one of the most thoughtful coaches and managers in the game at the time. 

When Greenwood left West Ham in the late 1970s, there was a hollow gap, an aching echo, nobody who could apparently do the job half as well. Greenwood was destined for the England job. West Ham were left twiddling their thumbs, worried and concerned. John Lyall, whose playing career had been abruptly curtailed too early, had obtained all of the appropriate coaching FA badges and a job at his boyhood club became his. Lyall almost won the old First Division League Championship for the Hammers in 1986 only to be denied at the last hurdle by both Everton and Liverpool. 

But there was such an easy transitional period for West Ham 50 years ago. Spurs had stood firmly behind Bill Nicholson and Keith Burkinshaw when Spurs came a cropper and were relegated to the old Second Division, Manchester United did briefly panic when the club went in the same direction and although Chelsea once fell of the map during the 1980s, Ken Bates, their bluff and amiable chairman, rescued the club from old Second Division obscurity. 

Now though, there is Nuno Espirito Santo, the man now given the poisoned chalice that is the West Ham job. It will be impossible to form any judgments on the former Wolves boss since there is nothing in a script yet to be written. Santo looked very tactically shrewd and forward thinking while he was at the Molineux but then the club's patience ran out when the team kept losing. Yesterday, though, Nuno was all smiles and wide eyed enthusiasm. West Ham's Rush Green training ground in Romford was suitably excited and allowing West Ham the luxury of one extra day to be ready for Everton tomorrow night. 

And yet there is nervous trepidation at the London Stadium but, at the same time, trembling excitement. Nuno of course loves the purity of the Beautiful Game and is almost word perfect when it comes to the technical football manual. He knows how to organise his defence, encouraging his teams to pass the ball with immaculate fluency through the lines and scoring goals at the right moment and time. Portugal are now a renowned footballing nation and Nuno came through the Portuguese youth academy system as if born to the passing game. 

Tomorrow we'll know for sure where West Ham are now in what could be the most dramatic rehabilitation process if indeed this is the case. It could be that any lasting damage has already been done. For those who have followed the club through thick and thin, in both adversity and triumph, this is not entirely unusual territory. We have followed them through both the Greenwood and Lyall revolution with bitten finger nails and, at times, total bemusement.

'I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles' has never seen so apt a description for West Ham United. Bubbles were always flying high and invariably reaching the sky. Some of us will be hoping for an instant revival at David Moyes Everton tomorrow. Now that would just seem such a huge boost to the club's dwindling spirits. Come on you Happy Hammers.