Julen Lopetegui has 12 games to avoid West Ham United sack, must win 8 to save his job
Julen Lopetegui needs to win two thirds of the games at West Ham between now and Christmas to be able to ward off pressure on his job, says Stan Collymore.
The former Liverpool and Aston Villa striker said in his Caught Offside column on 27 September that the Spaniard needs to be given time to overcome his current struggles because he is a capable manager, but suggested he isn’t such a good “football politician”.
Collymore pointed to Villa boss Unai Emery who has successfully insulated himself by getting key men employed around him, forcing the board to second guess how much they would have to get rid of if they sacked him, something that Lopetegui doesn’t have yet, and admitted the pressure is on at the London Stadium.
He wrote: “The issue he has now is that he hasn’t got results behind him, so he has to get a few wins on the board quickly or he’ll be under mounting pressure.
“David Moyes was on [Richard] Keys and [Andy] Gray at the weekend which, whether we like it or not, has traction in the English language, and so a lot of people are going to get to watch David Moyes talking again about his philosophy in the game, and how he’s putting himself back out there again. I can see the narrative and what’s potentially coming.
“From my perspective, it’s really simple for Lopetegui; he’s probably got to win two thirds of his games before the Christmas break to have a chance of then going “it’s taken a little bit of time, but here we are to silence the doubters.'”
After defeat at Liverpool in the Carabao Cup the Irons have 12 Premier League games before Christmas, starting at Brentford on Saturday (28 September).
Stan Collymore calls for Julen Lopetegui time at West Ham
If the Irons board felt Lopetegui was the right man to take over from David Moyes this summer then it is unlikely they would have entirely changed their minds this quickly.
However, there is no way they can be happy with the uninspiring start he has made, especially after investing well over £100million in the transfer market.
The London Stadium hierarchy’s dithering through the final months of Moyes’ tenure made the Scot’s exit more of a circus that it needed to be, and won’t have done anything to build confidence among the fanbase that they have got the decision right now.
It is quite possible that he has a plan that will just take some weeks to bed in, and while the window was exciting that level of change can increase the time required, especially when a number of players arrived right before the deadline.
However, while it is possible to cite the big jobs that Lopetegui has impressed enough to be given in the past it is impossible to do so without highlighting how he isn’t immune to errors of judgment.
He was infamously sacked by the Spanish national team just two days before their first game at the 2018 World Cup [BBC Sport] for accepting the Real Madrid job without warning, and less than five months later he was out at the Santiago Bernabeu as well [BBC Sport].
Moyes’ tenure was allowed to grow stale while Lopetegui’s has barely got going yet, but while Key‘s suggestions it was a mistake to get rid of the previous boss aren’t accurate (23 September), an obvious upturn in fortunes will be necessary soon or it will have been a mistake to appoint the former Wolves man in his place.
In other West Ham news, the faces of David Sullivan and Karren Brady spoke volumes for one former Hammer who has seen them before with managerial exits.
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