Why does Lopetegui want West Ham?

Published 2024-05-07
On Monday, West Ham announced that David Moyes will leave the club when his contract expires in the summer.

After a prolonged search for Moyes’ successor, it seems the Hammers have landed on Julen Lopetegui. So why have West Ham chosen the former Spain, Real Madrid and Wolves manager over other candidates?

And for Lopetegui himself - what is it about the project that has made him turn down the allure of Bayern Munich? Host Ayo Akinwolere is joined by David Ornstein and Tim Spiers to discuss the how next season could look in east London under Lopetegui.

00:00 Intro
00:16 West Ham & David Moyes
01:11 Moyes’ departure
06:30 Lopetegui & West Ham
10:08 Is Lopetegui the best candidate?
14:18 Evolution of football
24:29 Lopetegui’s style of play & West Ham transfers
29:39 What the fans should get excited about
31:46 Outro

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#westham #lopetegui #premierleague

All Comments (21)
  • @tonypap1
    May I remind you sensitive souls of how Moyes arrived at WHUFC ? Both times, he negotiated with David Sullivan mid-season and whilst the existing managers Bilic and Pellegrini were under contract. And, furthermore…… he was appointed all very publicly as a result of their sacking. They didn’t have the luxury of reaching the ends of their contracts. So, please spare us the “boo-hoos”. Moyes has benefited from and has been complicit in the same grubby dealings of David Sullivan.
  • @DigitalNomad.1
    If the Brighton manager said in Jan he's not deciding on contract until the end of the season and they started lining up possible replacements early everyone would be going wow look how pro active and well run they are praise praise praise
  • @JB-cq6wg
    Let’s have it right: Moyes has left West Ham in a terrible position: * £500m Spent * Oldest squad in the league * Smallest Squad in the league * Relegation battle last season * Awful second half this season * conceded the most goals other than bottom 3 * More touches in our 18yrd box than any team other than Sheffield UTD
  • @hammertic
    😮 Were the West Ham board seriously supposed to wait for. lord Moyes to make up his mind before looking out for a replacement ?
  • @hammer159159
    i don't agree on treating him with respect. he was treated the same as the 2 managers he took over from. He was on Bein sports laughing when asked if he was returning to West ham to take over from Pellegrini. mid-season and a week later Pellegrini was fired and he was in place. Bilic fired mid-season and Moyes took over within 2 days, he clearly spoke to West ham in advance both times. How do you expect West Ham to act when he has less than 2 months left and Moyes insisting he will decide later. West Ham had to do their due diligence to look for a replacement.
  • @gror7849
    I think its a great match. Lopetegui is a great coach and West Ham has financial power to satisfy the transfers he needs.
  • Tim Spiers obviously doesn't recall Moyes at Sunderland and Real Sociedad. He also only got 1 more point than Pelligrini and the last 2 years have been relegation performances. A cup win that any manager in the PL could have achieved with that squad
  • @bhasb9067
    Kudus, and Alvarez were Steinten/Nobel signings. If Moyes had had his way he would have wasted it on Maguire and McTomeney with no resale value. Moyes cannot find a system for a quality striker like Ings, or Halle, or Scamaccar. Cornet and Benrahma also could not fit in. Aguard and Kherer frustrated. Lots of money wasted for his ego. I was neutral until a few weeks ago. I suppose you lot need your expenses paid lunches with Moyes.
  • @IggyGoesPop666
    At last, The Athletic does a broadcast about a team who are outside of the top 6! Firstly Lopetegui would be a major and I mean a MAJOR upgrade to Moyes. WHU have the oldest and smallest squad in the league due to Moyes mismanagement over the last 4 years but the good news is that Steidten has a war chest of over £100m to spend and that doesn't include the £85m that they will get if Pacquta leaves for City. So this new Moyesless positive team of Steidten and Lopetegui can build a much younger and progressive team around Kudus, Bowen, Alvarez and the Pacman should he stay ... happy dayz and good night Mr Negative Moyes
  • @edavis6077
    What was west ham supposed to do? No look for a manager when Moyes himself says he may go.. worlds smallest violin.
  • @tw25rw
    For me, the change in style needed is to not concede 5 against lesser teams when we need a win.
  • @cwakerly
    Thanks for unbiased opinions on this subject. It's nice to see you are not jumping on the bandwagon to vilify the west ham fan base.
  • @marcnoone7719
    Moyes had no problem taking to West Ham when bilic was still manager!!!
  • @Wuerro777
    Moyes deserves everything he’s getting
  • @JB-cq6wg
    Moyes can’t have it both ways: * Moyes took the job while another manager in the job * Moyes has been saying he will make the decision. So West Ham are in their rights to look for another coach
  • @harrisx420
    You take him on as manager then see how long you last till you want a new manager at the club you support. See how long you guys put up with the low block.
  • @MrBillUp
    21:11 For all this to come to fruition, one thing needs to happen. Sullivan needs to keep his nose out of the every day running of the club. He cannot have anything to do with it apart from write the cheques. I was dead against Lopetegui taking over the coaching role, but after listening to Tim, I'm a little more enthused.
  • @IggyGoesPop666
    The truth about the GAS LIGHTING David Moyes, these are not my options as they are clear FACTS! 1. When Moyes took over from Fergie in 2013 he sacked all of his back room staff because he wanted complete control of all of the aspects of the club. 12 years later the club have not recovered from his incompetence 2. Having been SACKED by United in 2014 Moyes moved onto Real Sociedad where he lasted a year with a win rate of 29% before being SACKED AGAIN 3. During Moyes time at Real Sociedad he did not make any attempts to learn Spanish. Sometime later Moyes got a new rule introduced within the Scottish FA that all new managers getting their required badges had to learn a second language even though HE NEVER DID! 4. In 2016 Moyes joined Sunderland where he got them RELEGATED after achiving an amazingly low 19% win rate. Just like Man Utd, Sunderland have never recovered from it! 5. Moyes agreed to take over the WHU manager job whilst Slaven Bilic was still in charge 2017 (Slimy or what) for Moyes to then go onto having a 29% win rate even though Bilic win rate was 38% 6. In 2018 WHU decided not to extend Moyes 1 year contract so they brought onboard the 10 yes TEN managerial trophy winning Pelegrini as their new manager. The board had a knee jerk reaction in sacking him 18 months later in 2019 when WHU were in the relegation zone and sacked him when there was a good chance that he would have secured Prem League safety had be been allowed to carry on. 7. So the club decided to bring back David Moyes who previously had a 29% win rate to replace Pelegrini who had a win rate of 38% (the same as Bilic) 8. Moyes steadied the ship over the next 4 seasons whilst "AS HE LIKES TO TELL EVERYONE" that "HE" won them their first cup in 40 years ... and he did ... but look at the FACTS ... as the WHU had given Moyes over £500m worth of talent over the past 4 years. The really amazing fact is that this sum of money was MORE than ALL OF the teams that WHU played in that European competition COMBINED!!! 9. Moyes has an amazingly concerning history of hand picking players himself that cost the club tens of millions to then play them out of their proffered/ natural positions because they simply do not suite his style of football, so how shocking is that. Numerous players have been purchased and then shown the door in under a year at a MAJOR FINANCIAL LOSS ... Haller, Scamacca, Anderson to name but a few. 10. WHU has one of the best academies in world football at the moment but Moyes simply will not play these players even in cup competitions against lesser teams like Bristol City who funny enough beat them 11. Considering the £500m that Moyes has wasted over the 4 years, he is leaving the club with the smallest and OLDEST squad in the Prem League. So there you go, just a few FACTS about the useless snake oil salesman David Moyes who for some really weird reason has the football media in his pocket as they constantly patronise the WHU fans with ignorant statements like "Be careful what you wish for" as these clowns don't pay to watch the narcissistic one trick negative pony David Moyes terrible so called football
  • @IAmCrumpton
    Why are all the media so biased in supporting David Moyes? Is it coz his British? It’s a joke. I’ve never heard them talk about other clubs when replacing their manager to ask if they disrespected the leaving manager? Never. But now everyone cares how Moyes is and how he feels etc. haha it’s such rubbish