David Sullivan may well be looking to replace David Moyes as West Ham United manager at the end of the season.
West Ham co-owner David Sullivan was said to be extremely unhappy with David Moyes last month, after the Scot spoke to the media following our 2-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest.
The Hammers are actually in a strong position right now. We are currently sitting in seventh spot in the Premier League table, with a genuine chance of qualifying for Europe again.
Meanwhile, West Ham are in the quarter-finals of the Europa League, and face a mouth watering clash with Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen next month.
However, the general consensus is that unless we win the Europa League and/or finish inside the top seven this season, Moyes will be moved on in the summer, with the likes of Michael Carrick being lined up to replace him.
Moyes has done a fine job since returning to the London Stadium for the second time in December 2019. That said, many believe that he has reached his ceiling now, and cannot take us any further.
The 60-year-old seems reluctant to use the strengths of the incredibly talented players he has available to him to impose his side on our opponents.
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So if Sullivan does make a change this season, who will he go for? Well, we all know that the 75-year-old doesn’t like spending money to prise managers away from their clubs. So he will probably be looking at those who are out of work.
Here are five options who the Hammers co-owner will undoubtedly be looking at this summer, if he does indeed decide to part ways with Moyes…
5 out-of-work managers David Sullivan would love to replace David Moyes
There are plenty of high profile managers who are currently out of work. But here are five who I think Sullivan will be keeping a very close eye on…
The recently sacked Roma manager is someone who has been on the West Ham radar over the past 12 months, and he was touted as a potential replacement for Moyes back in April of last year.
There may be some fans who say that Mourinho’s style is too similar to that of Moyes, but the 61-year-old is on another level to the Scot.
He has a lengthy and sustained record of winning trophies for a start – 26 to be exact compared to Moyes’s one! The Portuguese manager has won two Champions League trophies and three Premier League titles. He’s an absolute legend of the game who would instantly command the respect of our players.
He may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but he’d be a big step up on Moyes, there’s absolutely no doubt about that in my mind.
The 48-year-old has been heavily linked with the West Ham manager’s job over the past year or so, after he was sacked as Chelsea boss.
Potter worked miracles at Brighton and in fairness to him, he did a decent job at Chelsea until Todd Boehly started spending money like it was going out of fashion on players the manager hasn’t even asked for. Either way, he wasn’t given the time for his footballing philosophy to manifest into results on the pitch.
Potter’s style of football is uniquely brilliant and captivating to watch. He likes his side to build up play from the back and insists on quick triangles and patterns of play in the middle of the park. It is a complicated system though, so we will have to give him time for his ideas to bed in, if he is indeed named as the new West Ham manager.
I feel like if the Hammers fans really want a change, then Potter would be perfect for us. Her has a proven track record of giving talented youngsters a chance to showcase their abilities and what’s more, improving them as players as well.
As mentioned earlier though, we probably wouldn’t see results for at least 12 months, and I’m just not sure the West Ham fanbase is patient enough for that!
This is one who I really wouldn’t want, but he’s got a Sullivan appointment written all over him! Rafa was heavily linked with us last year, and after he was sacked from Celta Vigo last week, he will undoubtedly be touted for the Hammers job again.
Sullivan admitted himself back in 2015 that he’s a huge fan of Rafa, and was just two hours away from appointing him as West Ham manager (The Guardian). He had success during his time in charge of Liverpool and Chelsea where he won the Champions League and Europa League respectively, and of course Valencia, where he won two La Liga titles more than 20 years ago.
However, he’s very much yesterday’s man, and the defensive, painfully slow paced playing style that he implements certainly wouldn’t appeal to the Hammers fans. His football is truly painful to watch, and if Sullivan brings him in to replace Moyes, it would be two steps backwards for us as far as I’m concerned.
The 57-year-old Spaniard has been strongly linked with the Hammers job over the past few months, with the West Ham board apparently admirers of his work. He won the Europa League in charge of Sevilla in 2020, but his struggles with Wolves in the Premier League should serve as a big red flag.
Lopetegui’s managerial spell at Wolves was panned by fans and the media alike (Goal), and it’s surely no coincidence that he has been out of work since leaving Molineux in the summer of 2023.
I think that the former Sevilla, Spain and Real Madrid boss would be a terrible appointment, but I really could see Sullivan being interested in him.
Andre Villas-Boas
The second former Tottenham manager on the list after Mourinho, Villas-Boas has been out of work since leaving Marseille three years ago. Given his lack of recent work, he would probably be the cheapest and easiest appointment for Sullivan to get over the line.
The 46-year-old has won two league titles during his career, in Portugal and Russia respectively. However, he was despised by Tottenham and Chelsea fans during his time in the Premier League.
The build-up play that he deploys is tedious, and there is no speed to the tempo of his teams. I don’t think that he’s a bad manager but he has proven during his time in England that he’s not good enough to manage a top 10 Premier League side. This one would be a hard no from me, but I can see why he’d appeal to our owner.
Sullivan could replace Moyes but there will be a catch
If David Sullivan does decide to replace David Moyes this summer, it would be great to see him go for a young, up and coming manager like Ruben Amorim or Arne Slot.
However, I believe that the West Ham supremo will target a manager who is out of work, and it wouldn’t surprise me one little bit if he opted for one of the five names mentioned above.
The Hammers have so much potential as a club, and with the right manager at the helm and proper investment from the owners, we definitely could push for the top four places in the Premier League table.
In my opinion, we are a sleeping giant of the English game. Whether we ever realise our potential as a club remains to be seen though.
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