It was supposed to be a season of brilliant football with results that would propel West Ham towards the upper echelons of the Premier League table, but the exact opposite has occurred under Julen Lopetegui and now it’s come to light that the club did something incredible in the summer.
Once it was decided that David Moyes would leave the club and Lopetegui would take the reins at the London Stadium, technical director, Tim Steidten, went on a spending spree that saw the Hammers land players such as Niclas Fullkrug, Crysencio Summerville and Luis Guilherme.
West Ham’s net spend was the sixth highest in Europe
The quality of player secured gave rise to the notion that the Irons would hit the ground running at the start of the 2024/25 campaign, however, Lopetegui’s poor start has seen Steidten put under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
Intriguingly, Steidten had apparently warned the Hammers against employing Lopetegui before the deal was done.
With six games gone so far, just one win in the English top-flight and a humbling in the Carabao Cup up at Liverpool has left the Spaniard’s dreams in tatters.
It isn’t clear how much more patience the West Ham board have in Lopetegui, though journalist, Jonathan Liew, told Sky Sports Back Pages podcast that he was “fighting for his job.”
Further, Liew dropped an incredible revelation that leave have fans of the club incredulous.
“I was reading that their net spend was the sixth-highest in Europe this summer for West Ham,” he added.
No wonder Lopetegui finds himself under intense pressure from all sides, not least because the brand of football has been incredibly poor.
“How serious is the situation for Lopetegui at the London Stadium?” Liew pondered. “”I think it is [serious]. I mean, it used to be that the Premier League sacking season started in about November, but it seems to get earlier and earlier every year now.”
The fixture against Premier League new boys Ipswich Town now looms large, and the Spaniard will do well to still be in a job after the international break if the Hammers don’t get three points from that game.