Julen Lopetegui bound for job centre after incident at West Ham United
Mohammed Kudus’ red card against Tottenham on Saturday (19 October) could result in Julen Lopetegui’s sacking at West Ham, according to Kat Lucas.
The i journalist said on 21 October that Kudus “may as well have marched Lopetegui to the job centre”, after a moment of madness late in the Irons’ 4-1 defeat saw him shown a straight red card.
Kudus is now set to miss at least three games, and potentially more if the FA extend his ban [Daily Mirror, 21 October], depriving Lopetegui of a key player for crunch fixtures against Manchester United, Nottingham Forest and Everton.
The report added that Kudus’ “idiotic” moment summed up the mood in a Hammers dressing room which has produced just two wins from eight Premier League matches this season.
Julen Lopetegui faces crucial period at West Ham United
Although Lopetegui is just 10 games into his tenure as the Irons’ new manager, there have been very few signs that the Spaniard is the right man to take an expensively-assembled, new-look squad forwards.
The manner of the defeats – of which there have already been five in all competitions – has been the most alarming though, with the Hammers dumped out of the EFL Cup by Liverpool in a 5-1 thrashing.
That’s on top of heavy losses to Manchester City, Chelsea and now Tottenham, and though those sides are expected to challenge for the top four, part of Lopetegui’s remit was to get the club back into Europe.
One player arguably most capable of helping them do that is Kudus, and with Lopetegui potentially without his talisman until mid-November, he must find a way of reversing their wretched run of form.
Kudus’ red card against Spurs was the last thing an increasingly under-pressure Lopetegui needed, and it remains to be seen if the Spaniard will still be in post by the time the winger does make his return.
In other West Ham news, Irons and Tottenham fans went arm-in-arm in protest over behind-the-scenes developments at both clubs.
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