Julen Lopetegui responds to Tim Steidten question in West Ham reflection
Julen Lopetegui offered a cold verdict when asked about Tim Steidten in an interview reflecting on his time at West Ham.
The Spaniard was dismissed from his role as West Ham boss back at the start of 2025 with the Hammers struggling to find consistency in their results.
Although many thought it was a fair decision, the Irons faced plenty of criticism over the way the sacking was done with his successor Graham Potter openly being interviewed before he was let go.
Lopetegui offers Steidten view in few words
There were plenty of issues with Lopetegui’s reign at The London Stadium that seemingly contributed to his sacking.
Being successor to David Moyes was always going to add pressure to the role with supporters expecting a real boost to replace a manager like Moyes.
In addition to this, plenty of money was spent in the January transfer window with former Technical Director Tim Steidten having a big role to play.
However, things soon turned sour when Lopetegui followed in the footsteps of Moyes and banned Steidten from the training ground.
Since the managers’ exit, Steidten has also been let go from his role in East London.
| Wins | Draws | Losses | |
| Julen Lopetegui | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Graham Potter | 2 | 1 | 3 |
In an interview with The Guardian reflecting on his time with the Irons, Lopetegui was hesitant to discuss his former colleague and when he was brought up, the Spaniard raised a hand and said: “Stop. I prefer not to talk about the Tim subject.
“That’s the past, internal issues.
“You’re responsible for what you do, you control. You ask specifically about that person, I prefer not to answer.”
When the interviewer went on to suggest if Steidten’s recent sacking suggested a lesson learned, Lopetegui responded: “As John Toshack used to say: ‘No comment.’”
Graham Potter needs to improve West Ham
When you consider the job that Lopetegui was doing at West Ham, it’s not too surprising that the hierarchy at The London Stadium felt it was appropriate to let him go.
Results were inconsistent but so too were performances and he had been brought into the club in order to improve both of those statistics.
Furthermore, with the money that was spent on bringing in new players who were not performing to the expected levels, questions were raised over the level of recruitment too.
That being said, when you look at the results since Potter’s arrival they are not exactly filling supporters with confidence that new, brighter times are ahead.
Nevertheless, an impressive 1-0 victory against Arsenal will surely have its part to play in building the momentum needed to put a run of results together.
In addition to this, with Steidten now out of the door too, this may be the key to Potter now having a successful summer transfer window as he looks to make his mark on the team going forward.