Looking ahead to the run-in for West Ham

National World - LocalTV

A look ahead to the remainder of the campaign.

Transcript

00:00So James, looking at West Ham and let's sort of look ahead to the remainder of the season

00:07now obviously not a load of games to go in terms of West Ham's season with them being

00:14out of the cup competitions and no European football this time round. How do you sort

00:18of look ahead to the remainder of this season? Where can you sort of see them finishing and

00:23getting on and can you see it as sort of a positive for Graham Potter to have this bit

00:28of a trial run before really giving it a go at it with a full season with the side

00:33next? Yeah, I think a lot of fans have accepted the fact that there's nothing really much

00:38to play for this season now and it's all about really like you just said there, Graham Potter

00:44just having an opportunity to work with the squad that he's got, integrate Evan Ferguson

00:49into the team and get him playing, get some key players back from injury and really imposing

00:55his style and his philosophy and his ideas onto this squad ahead of what we're hoping

01:02to be a decent summer of business for us to sort of get the players in ahead of next season

01:06but we haven't got anything to play for. So from a fan's perspective it purely is just

01:13seeing this team develop into a Graham Potter team and we've already started seeing the

01:21signs admittedly over the last few performances and if we can make a push for a surprising

01:29top 10 finish then great but I think realistically we're probably looking between 11th and 14th

01:36is probably a realistic finish for us which beginning last summer there was a lot of hope

01:42that we'd maybe push for Europe, that didn't work on the Lopotegi as a result of that it

01:46means that we had to kind of reassess our expectations but this is now, it was always

01:52going to be a transitional season for us given the change of manager last summer and it's

01:57still that now with a new manager in place. So it's just a case of we need to kind of

02:02just temper our expectations between now and the end of the season and just hope that Graham

02:08Potter can really get the team playing the way he wants them to play. Like I said we've

02:13seen some early positive signs. So I think I said last week that there is a positive

02:20atmosphere around the club at the moment and there is hope that we are now finally going

02:25in the right direction post David Moyes.

02:30Yeah obviously the summer was quite big in terms of the spending under Lopotegi,

02:35they clearly felt he was the right man to take them forward and backed him very well.

02:39Do you sort of feel there are the foundations have already been laid in terms of the sort

02:44of quality throughout the side that there are there to go and get European football

02:48again consistently? That's where obviously the club want to be and obviously after that

02:53trophy success as well. And then obviously as we mentioned Potter's time is so crucial

02:58this season to really sort of give it a trial run and then go full front next season and

03:03really do you feel it could really benefit the club in terms of their long-term goals?

03:07I think I've said it a number of times before that the summer that we did last year

03:14wasn't a problem really. Last summer it wasn't. The players that he brought in,

03:18there are still a couple of question marks, one or two of them, but overall the business

03:21that we did wasn't that bad. It was just the fact that the manager couldn't really

03:25impose a good enough system. On paper the squad is good enough to be competing for a

03:31top eight Premier League finish and to qualify for Europe. It is, you know, Lucas Bakata,

03:36Mo Kudas, Jarrod Bowen, now you've got Evan Ferguson in midfield, you've got Edson Alvarez

03:42at the back, you've got Jean-Claude Thibaut, you've got Max Killman, Aaron Wan-Bissaka,

03:47you know, all players that are good enough to be playing in European competition.

03:50So it's now down to Graham Potter. If we can give him a little bit more money next summer,

03:54there are question marks over how much he'll be able to spend because of, you know,

03:58financial fair play and PSR that's come in and whether we have a lot of money to spend and

04:03whether we might have to sell a few to be able to reinvest. The foundations are there, you're right.

04:09It's just, have we got the manager to do it? And I think we do have the manager to

04:13really push us on from next season onwards.

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