Graham Potter finds himself in a position familiar to many of his predecessors. This is not the first time David Sullivan’s lack of vision has led to West Ham dragging out a managerial departure. It is dressed up as loyalty but in reality it is dysfunction. It is the same old story. It happened to Gianfranco Zola in 2010, Avram Grant in 2011, Sam Allardyce in 2015, Slaven Bilic in 2017, Manuel Pellegrini in 2019, David Moyes on numerous occasions and, as recently as January, to Julen Lopetegui before he was replaced by Potter.
This is how it is under Sullivan. It is an inefficient way to do business, exposing the short-termism that has led to mass protests against West Ham’s board, but Potter cannot say he was not warned. Working for Sullivan was never going to be easy. This is standard practice for the 76-year-old, which is why there was no point in feigning outrage after it emerged that West Ham had warmed up for last weekend’s defeat by Crystal Palace by holding talks with Nuno Espírito Santo about taking over from Potter.
