00:00So, James, looking at West Ham and their season so far, it's been a bit of a strange season
00:09in terms of how West Ham fans might look back at this one. Obviously, so much success over
00:14the last couple of seasons, the back end of David Moyes' tenure. Then they depart ways
00:19with him, bringing in Julian Opetegui, a manager who has had incredible experience at some
00:25incredible jobs, managerial-wise, in the likes of Spain and Real Madrid. Obviously, you know,
00:31Kep Wolves up in the Premier League as well. So, he had been in the Premier League prior
00:36and clearly wanted to continue and test himself at a bit of a higher level with more of a
00:41budget to work with. That didn't work out. How do you sort of, you know, and obviously
00:45Graeme Potter comes in, we'll get to Potter, but how do West Ham fans sort of review this
00:49season so far and what it's presented? Because it's maybe not gone 100 per cent to plan.
00:57That's an understatement. I think a lot of fans towards the end of David Moyes' time
01:02were feeling like they wanted something new, they wanted something different. They were
01:08fully appreciative of what Moyes had achieved, beyond anyone's wildest dreams, what he did
01:14at the club. But towards the end, that second half of last season, there were cracks beginning
01:19to show in David Moyes' West Ham. It just felt like we want a nicer style of football.
01:26We want to be able to go to games and still get the results, but then kind of also be
01:31entertained. We were no longer being entertained.
01:35And the Lopetegui appointment baffled a lot of fans. Yes, he has pedigree. He won the
01:42Europa League with Sevilla, he's managed Real Madrid, managed Spain, as you said, Kep Wolves
01:47up, but he kind of didn't fit the profile that a lot of fans really expected the club
01:53to go for when it comes to moving away from what we were expecting and what we were getting
02:00under David Moyes. But there were a lot of fans that were going, OK, he's not really
02:04the profile, but let's just see how he gets on. Let's give him a chance.
02:08He even said before he was appointed in an interview somewhere that he felt like he had
02:12unfinished business in the Premier League after the way that he'd left Wolves. So I
02:17was clinging on to that going, OK, well, if he feels like he's got unfinished business,
02:21he's going to hopefully hit the ground running and he's going to be a success. And it just
02:25didn't work. And within three or four games, it was very obvious that he wasn't the right
02:28fit. He spent around 150 million on some good players. One or two players are still question
02:34marks over, but the majority of that business was very good. And it just didn't work. And
02:40I think the club left it too long, probably could have made a change a month or two before
02:46they eventually did. But there were just times when we didn't really understand what the
02:51tactics were. We didn't really understand. You could tell the players didn't really understand
02:56what they were doing half the time. Aaron Wan-Bissaka was being deployed as a right
03:01winger half the time, even though he's most known for his defensive work, his defensive
03:06ability. And he was being played well up the pitch, way too far, being caught out of
03:11position. And it just felt like there wasn't any identity. Now, under David Moyes, we had
03:16an identity and it was an identity that we no longer wanted. We were happy for it for
03:21a while. We were happy to be known as the team that were very defensive and very conservative
03:25and 10 men beyond the ball and beat teams on the counter attack. And it worked for a
03:30period of time. We wanted a more attractive identity. And we went from that to then not
03:36having any identity at all. So it was a frustrating start to the season, given the expectations
03:42at West Ham, especially amongst the fan base, is so much different now after what David
03:45Moyes achieved. It needed a manager to come in and really grab the ball by the horns and
03:51really take the club where the fans and where the club really feel as it should be.
03:55Well, first and foremost, after four games of Gran Potter being in charge, we've got
04:01an identity. Now, it's not the identity that we're going to have in a year's time under
04:05Gran Potter, but he's come in and we've got... There's very clear roles and responsibilities
04:11for the players. There's very clear tactics against Aston Villa in the Premier League
04:15on Sunday evening. Yes, he hasn't got a striker. He's got a makeshift defence because of injury
04:21problems. He's kind of come in and already been faced with a lot of problems. But the
04:26team played really, really well and probably deserved to win the game in the second half.
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