by Every now and then a game like this comes up in the football calendar, where the manager who loses is probably on his last day in the job. Welcome to “El Sackico”.
Admittedly, the recent form of the likes of Ipswich and the doomed Southampton has been worse than that of West Ham or Wolves, who meet at the London Stadium on Monday night. But it is the steady decline of these two great clubs that has brought both managers to the brink.
While Julen Lopetegui could win this game and still be replaced by the West Ham board, who have been busy planning their life after the Spaniard for the past five days, it is Wolves whose campaign is in greater danger.
The Wolves finished 10th in the 2021-22 season under Bruno Lage, then 13th under Lopetegui, now in the opposite dugout, and 14th last season under Gary O’Neil. Only the Saints are below them this season, and defeats in the last two games against Bournemouth (4-2) and Everton (4-0) smack of results that will ensure O’Neil doesn’t end the season survives.
O’Neil’s side have scored a sobering 36 goals in 14 league games, making them by far the weakest defense in the division. After a 5-3 defeat at Brentford in October, they sacked Standards coach Jack Wilson. With all due respect it made no difference.
Wolves fans could be forgiven for looking up at 10th-placed Bournemouth and feeling that the Cherries made the right decision by swapping the Englishman for Andoni Iraola. He has ensured Bournemouth are on the rise while Wolves are on the decline.
Now the West Midlands club face their former coach Lopetegui in a reunion that can at best end well for one party, but will most likely end badly for both.
It felt like the beginning of the end for Lopetegui when they conceded five goals in a single half against Arsenal two weeks ago. The 3-1 defeat to Leicester at the King Power Stadium last Tuesday felt even more damaging.
Lopetegui’s side had 31 shots in the game and had 61 percent possession, but failed to counterattack in Ruud van Nistelrooy’s first game as Foxes coach. Lopetegui also made his 12th half-time substitution this season – more than any manager in the league and certainly an acknowledgment that his game plans rarely work out.
It’s hard to see West Ham’s approach to Lopetegui as anything other than buying more time to choose a successor
Many felt that Lopetegui had disappeared that night. When asked if he was worried about his job, he replied that he was only thinking about preparing for the Wolves game.
And after much deliberation and much disagreement over his ideal candidate, West Ham’s board decided on Thursday to keep him in place, at least for this time.
It was hard to imagine this call meaning anything other than simply buying them more time to choose a successor they could all agree on, and this could still be Lopetegui’s last game in an ill-fated five months at the helm. One thing is crystal clear. If the Hammers lose to a team beaten by Everton last time out, then so be it.
