Graham Potter has checked in at a troubled West Ham with the message that solely a united strategy will hold them afloat in a “ruthless” Premier League.
Weeks of hypothesis over Julen Lopetegui’s future ended on Wednesday together with his alternative by Potter, who returns to administration after 21 months away. Potter was sacked by Chelsea in April 2023 and joins what’s, on the face of issues, a equally turbulent West Ham atmosphere. The technical director, Tim Steidten, who would in concept be anticipated to work intently with Potter, may go away amid unhappiness about his switch document and fraught relationships with earlier managers.
Steidten fell out with Lopetegui and David Moyes throughout a interval wherein West Ham have did not kick on. Potter was requested at his unveiling on Thursday whether or not he would have the ability to kind a working relationship with the German and responded with a extra basic plea for concord.
“Sure, completely,” he stated. “I met all people on the board. Actually, actually constructive. I’ve solely been right here just a few hours so that you’ve obtained to provide me a little bit of time to develop relationships. However I can solely say from the final 12, 13 years of my profession, that’s what I’ve tried to do in all places I’ve gone. It’s essential we have now that togetherness, that alignment, that we’re getting in the identical route. As quickly as you begin going off in several methods, the Premier League is ruthless. So the extra collectively we’re, the extra aligned we’re, the higher.”
Main from the entrance with a candid strategy will, he feels, deliver everybody on to the identical web page. “There needs to be readability from me about how the crew needs to play: how does that present the route for everyone round to make choices, whether or not it’s recruitment or no matter,” he stated. “Then it’s about having open, respectful dialogue. Nobody’s obtained all of the solutions, nobody is aware of the whole lot.
“This can be a membership that’s had latest success. I’m right here now, so there’s a disappointment that’s been latest however there’s quite a lot of good right here, there’s quite a lot of constructive right here.”
Potter enthused that his comeback “seems like Christmas Day”, though among the presents left on the 14th-placed membership’s coaching floor is probably not to his liking. West Ham should not out of the relegation image and a disjointed squad, pockmarked with some expensively assembled flops, may do with surgical procedure this month. He expects assets to be obtainable if the proper additions turn into inside attain in a notoriously difficult window.
“The problem is to make some fast choices and be taught round what we have now,” he stated. “The January window shouldn’t be essentially the most simple, it may be sophisticated. My focus is on the crew that we’ve obtained. After which on the identical time, all the time concentrate on alternatives that may come.”
The trajectory of Potter’s profession, which ignited in a exceptional tenure at Östersund earlier than spectacular spells at Swansea and Brighton, flatlined badly when he left Chelsea six months after his appointment. He accepts there shall be sceptics to win over.
“After I hearken to Pep Guardiola, he says he’s obtained one thing to show,” he stated. “If he’s obtained one thing to show then all of us have, it’s the fact.
“I’m snug in my very own pores and skin, I’m snug with who I’m and what I’ve accomplished. Clearly nobody’s good. Life is about taking the successes, accepting the setbacks and accepting the defeats. Accepting the errors, coping with it and making you stronger. I feel I’m a greater particular person now for the expertise [at Chelsea], a greater coach for the expertise and effectively rested.”
Potter was not in need of affords to chop quick his prolonged break however defined it had been essential to “step again and see what’s taking place, analyse your individual pondering, your individual ideas”. He stated: “I’ve realized that I’m fairly competent, to be sincere. I’ve realized to not fear an excessive amount of about what folks from the skin consider me.” His first probability to kind opinions at West Ham will arrive on Friday night once they contest an FA Cup third-round tie at Aston Villa.