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Jamie O'Hara slams West Ham board after blowing 'perfect opportunity' this summer
West Ham United had the perfect opportunity to make a better managerial appointment than Julen Lopetegui in the summer, Jamie O'Hara has said.
Speaking on talkSPORT (9 November, 5:50pm), O'Hara bemoaned the Hammers hierarchy's inability to see beyond the easy option when replacing David Moyes, calling Lopetegui a "bad appointment".
Lopetegui's Irons team picked up a point in a dreary 0-0 draw with Everton on Saturday, but O'Hara argued that the club should be aiming much higher after the progress they've made in recent years.
He said: “It’s such a bad appointment – you’d be losing your mind wouldn’t you, with the owners, because it was the perfect opportunity really.
“You’re on the radar, you can attract big players, got a great stadium, go and get someone exciting – and I look at this appointment and I go; ‘what is that?’
“I was not convinced the moment you signed him, and I was like ‘that is such a bad appointment’ – and we’ve been proven right already!”
West Ham paying the price for Julen Lopetegui decision
It was hard to find an out-of-work manager the Irons weren't linked with earlier this year when it became clear that David Moyes would depart the club at the end of his contract.
Lopetegui, appointed at the end of May following the conclusion of the Premier League season, was pitched as the club's first choice, but Hammers higher-ups also spoke to the likes of Ruben Amorim.
With Amorim now bound for Manchester United and former Irons assistant Edin Terzic – recently a Champions League finalist – currently out of work, it's clear that not every stone was left unturned.
Lopetegui's last job prior to pitching up at the London Stadium was at fellow Premier League side Wolves, which he left in acrimonious circumstances following a lack of backing in the transfer market.
The Spaniard cannot complain of the same in East London with a transfer outlay of over £120million in the summer, and it seems increasingly unlikely that Lopetegui can get the best out of his new-look side.