Life after Moyes a mess for incoherent Hammers side

As West Ham were defeated, they got a glimpse of what they have lost. David Moyes was at the Etihad Stadium, the scene of his last game as their manager. West Ham were beaten then, just as they were in Julen Lopetegui's latest match in charge.

- RICHARD JOLLY

There are ways of comparing the Spaniard's tenure unflatteringly with the Scot’s but a record against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City is not one of them.

Lopetegui was entitled to feel a 4-1 scoreline was harsh but another number, and another reference to West Ham’s past, reflected poorly on him. His win percentage as their manager has now dropped below Avram Grant’s. And if the Israeli’s statistics were padded by some cup wins, his lone season in charge brought relegation. Lopetegui’s debut campaign will not, reducing the need to parachute Moyes in as a firefighter for the third time, but his has been an expensive brand of regression.

And while many West Ham fans would welcome Moyes back, Graham Potter is reportedly in talks to replace Lopetegui. Potter, 49, the former Brighton boss, has been out of work since April 2023 when he was sacked just 31 games into a five-year contract at Chelsea. West Ham have declined to comment on the potential change of manager.

The club has spent recent weeks with Tottenham and Manchester United as their neighbours in the table. Were that the scenario presented in the summer, they may have assumed they would be competing for a top-six finish, perhaps higher. Instead, they have not escaped the bottom half since August. They had been a fixture in 14th, rising recently to 13th.

Which, it is safe to say, is not what they envisaged when they committed around £140m to signings in the summer. Lopetegui was initially excited by the sheer scale of the budget. Now that ambition has come to look incoherent. West Ham wanted better and got worse.