Lopetegui and Pellegrini comparison made as ‘joyless’ West Ham slammed
Oliver Kay has drawn parallels between Julen Lopetegui and Manuel Pellegrini after what happened at West Ham United.
The Athletic journalist feels the Irons’ appointment of Lopetegui as their head coach in the summer is reminiscent of David Moyes being sidelined by Manuel Pellegrini in 2018.
However, he added that Lopetegui’s stint has been worse than the Chileans, with the East London looking “joyless” under him.
“I was going to say it looks like the Manuel Pellegrini appointment from 2018 all over again for them — pushing David Moyes aside to make way for a more exotic name, only to be underwhelmed”, Kay wrote on The Athletic [22 November].
“But so far it has been much worse. Life under Lopetegui looks joyless and that has to change fast.”
West Ham repeat mistake as Julen Lopetegui and Manuel Pellegrini comparison made
Pellegrini took the reins at West Ham in May 2018 after David Sullivan decided against handing Moyes a contract extension, much like the case with Lopetegui this summer.
The similarities do not end there, however. While much has been said about the Hammers’ £100million-plus expenditure in the summer [The Guardian], they spent £89.5million on seven new players ahead of Pellegrini’s first season in charge [football.london].
Felipe Anderson failed to live up to expectations after being roped in for a then-club record sum of £36million [BBC], while Andriy Yarmolenko and Lucas Perez were underwhelming too.
Similar patterns can be seen with Niclas Fullkrug and Luis Guilherme, who cost the club a combined sum of £52.5million according to BBC, this year.
Kay has, therefore, hit bullseye with his Lopetegui and Pellegrini comparison and it appears Sullivan has not learnt from his past mistakes.
The Irons owner hoped Lopetegui would take the club to greater heights, but is now caught between sacking him to salvage the season and keeping him to avoid paying severance fees.
In other West Ham news, Paul Merson has dubbed the Irons “delusional” after the latest Lopetegui sack verdict.
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