West Ham United need a big result against Tottenham Hotspur this weekend, it really is as simple as that.
Graham Potter has endured a truly disastrous first three months in charge of West Ham.
The Hammers head coach has failed to oversee any kind of genuine progress since Julen Lopetegui left the London Stadium.
Tomas Soucek called out his West Ham teammates on Saturday for their weak mentality, and Potter absolutely has to find a way of getting a tune out of them between now and the end of the season.
Sure, the Hammers will not be getting relegated this term, but there are standards that need to be set now so that there is genuine optimism heading into the start of the 2025/26 season.
Potter has approached the job at West Ham with more focus on performances rather than results.
He said as much after we lost 2-1 to Chelsea in February (WHUFC.com).
He has been speaking about us like we’re a plucky underdog who’ve just been promoted to the Premier League.
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Now he will find out the hard way that West Ham fans expect more than the back four just knocking the ball about amongst each other with no incisiveness going forward.
Graham Potter has got one very important thing so wrong at West Ham
The way that Potter has bleated on about positives and a long rebuild on the horizon for three months now with no tangible improvements is simply not acceptable.
He needs to listen to what Craig Bellamy said about the West Ham fans years ago:
“And do you know they get a bad rep the (West Ham) fans. But they were brilliant.
“They’re the most knowledgeable fans of all of them I ever played for, you couldn’t kid ’em.
“Do you know you see people go around kicking people and I’ve seen fans cheer like ‘Yea but he has a go’. He has a go at what?! He gives the ball away every time.
“There (West Ham) they won’t accept that. Because you’ve got to be a good player as well. ‘We expect you to have a go, we pay money for you to have a go, but what are you like on the ball and also what are you like when we’re not happy, do you still have the balls to go and get the ball?’
“And if you do then they’ll have you, they’re with you then. And I loved that about them, they weren’t kidded on because they’ve watched too many great players down the years, they’ve been brought up on Bobby Moore and all that type of stuff.“
We don’t demand consistent success, just a manager and a team of players who are willing to give everything to the club.
Potter seems to think that he had a free hit up until the end of the season when taking over at the London Stadium.
This ‘progress takes time’ narrative angers me. Vitor Pereira has done alright at Wolves hasn’t he! Also, that attitude seeps into the players’ mindsets and there is no accountability for underperforming.
And he will find out the hard way this weekend that the fans very much expect to see results now, or at the very least maximum effort with a clear footballing philosophy.
Tottenham game could be make or break for Graham Potter at West Ham
I’m not suggesting that Potter will get sacked if we lose to Spurs, but a poor, toothless performance may well really turn the fans against him.
There are already some who are questioning whether he is the right man for the job, and he looked like a beaten man after we lost to Brighton on Saturday.
I can’t help but feel like those emotions he showed when speaking to reporters were somehow not genuine. It was almost like Potter realised he had to show some emotion because the West Ham fans will not sit back and accept the ‘nicely, nicely’ approach.
It won’t work with the current group of players at the club either.
The performance from Potter’s players against Tottenham on Sunday will tell us a lot. If he isn’t able to get them pumped up for that game, then he might not be the man we need at the helm.