Julen Lopetegui sack sealed at West Ham United after club statement today
Julen Lopetegui will be ruing his luck amid a statement released by West Ham United on Tuesday afternoon.
The Spaniard is under immense pressure at the London Stadium on the back of the 5-0 loss to Liverpool last time out.
Lopetegui had appeared to turn a corner after going four games without defeat, but the Liverpool thumping brought West Ham crashing back down to earth.
Amid suggestions he has two games to save his job [Alex Crook, 30 December] – against Manchester City in the Premier League and Aston Villa in the FA Cup – Lopetegui received the worst-possible news on 31 December.
West Ham United release Jarrod Bowen statement
The club announced in a statement via its official X account [31 December] that Bowen sustained a fractured foot injury in Sunday’s (29 December) Premier League fixture against Liverpool.
No timeframe has been set for Bowen’s return, but any sort of absence is a major blow to both United and Lopetegui.
It goes without saying that Bowen is the best player in the squad and, without his goals, assists and general creativity, United are going to badly struggle in the final third.
Assuming the reports are true and Lopetegui does indeed have the Man City and Villa games to save his job, winning either of those is now a considerably more difficult task.
Bowen has five goals and four assists in 19 Premier League outings this term, making transfer links to Liverpool recently no surprise.
If there is any silver lining, it may well be that this injury layoff – coming right at the start of the January transfer window – puts teams off pursuing a move.
That is where the positives end, though, and it is likely that Bowen has now played his final game under Lopetegui at West Ham.
In other West Ham news, an unpopular transfer decision may soon have to be made at the London Stadium.
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