How much time does Potter have at West Ham?
- Published
In a sense, West Ham's problems date back to the aftermath of that euphoric night in Prague, when the club ended a 43-year wait for a trophy by beating Fiorentina in the Conference League final.
Owner David Sullivan announced virtually immediately that Declan Rice would be leaving and Tim Steidten came in as technical director to help reshape the Hammers squad with the £105m received from Arsenal.
Except it didn't quite work out as planned.
For a start, Steidten and David Moyes were not aligned in their thinking, which eventually resulted in the German being banned from the training ground.
West Ham spent the Rice money and more on four signings - all of whom initially flattered, then became either inconsistent or ineffective.
When Moyes left in 2024 - a move most accepted had to happen - Julen Lopetegui was chosen as his replacement by Steidten. Another £140m was spent on new players who, as a collective, made limited impact.
Lopetegui was sacked in January. Steidten left the following month.
It was into this maelstrom that Graham Potter stepped.
As is his way, Potter has played down a desire for new signings. He is not the type to bemoan his lot publicly. He prefers to work with players to try to improve the collective group. That will not change no matter what pressure he comes under.
Potter is working hard to correct the situation of their reliance on Jarrod Bowen, Tomas Soucek and Lucas Paqueta.
However, many West Ham fans have lost patience.
For all the noise around Potter, the interesting thing is the Hammers, historically, are not a sacking club.
If they end up in a mess, Sullivan's first reaction, usually, is to demand the manager gets the club out of it.
It is the tactic Sullivan followed with Moyes and, to an extent, Manuel Pellegrini before the Scot and Lopetegui afterwards.
The axe tends not to fall until after many have predicted.
That is not to say Potter has unlimited time. If Sullivan feels no progress is being made, he will make a decision.
The other point to remember, at the moment, is that Kyle Macaulay, a long-time associate of Potter, is now West Ham's director of recruitment. Clearly, we are still in a transfer window and the Hammers are trying to buy players.
Unless all the responsibility for this has been taken out of Macauley's hands - and there is no suggestion that is the case - Potter is presumably heavily involved.
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