It is not every week Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Roy Keane and Ian Wright are all on the same page but, with regards to Graham Potter’s future at West Ham United, any remaining backers appear to have given up the ghost long ago.
Now, no one needed to see Graham Potter dressed up as David Sullivan’s wife. Cocktail dress glittering and hair flowing.
For all the West Ham United supporters not quite so terminally online, that sentence will be pretty baffling. For those who have spent the last few days scrolling through a seemingly never-ending supply of Potter-themed face swaps, all you can do is laugh really. Gallows humour, certainly, but the Hammers faithful will take smiles anywhere they can find them at the moment.
According to prominent Hammers insider Sean Whetstone, West Ham are expected to keep Graham Potter in situ for the next two matches, away to Everton and away to Arsenal.
And this is not an approach which takes Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher by surprise. Gary Neville, Roy Keane and Ian Wright also feel there will be a new face in the London Stadium dugout sooner rather than later.
Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville speak out on Graham Potter’s West Ham United future
Carragher, speaking on the latest edition of The Overlap, believes the October international break will be the moment where the Sword of Damocles finally falls.
Rather than hand his replacement two extremely difficult opening fixtures, Carragher predicts that Nuno Espirito Santo, Gary O’Neil, Slaven Bilic or whoever it ends up being will instead arrive before more winnable clashes against Brentford, Leeds and Burnley while being given a two-week break to settle in.
“It’s not early [to sack him] because Graham Potter [has struggled] his whole time there, since he came in. I think most people were probably thinking he could lose his job on the back of Crystal Palace at home,” the 2005 Champions League winner says.
“The next two games are away, at Everton and Arsenal. Two tough games. And then the international break. I would be very surprised if Graham Potter is the manager after the next few games.
“They may not have made [the decision to remove Potter yet] but I would imagine they are pretty close.”
Potter was booed off at the London Stadium following that 2-1 defeat by Crystal Palace on Saturday. His decision to replace Mateus Fernandes late on, meanwhile, was met with a poisonous volley of ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ chants from the terraces.
“Graham Potter is obviously having a tough time, [especially with] the protest against the ownership,” adds former Manchester United captain Neville.
“I hope every manager keeps their jobs because it’s a nightmare when they lose their jobs, but I was expecting, on either Sunday or Monday, I wouldn’t have been surprised [if I saw] ‘Breaking News’. I was expecting it.
“If the owners are under pressure as well, it’s usually the thing they do to relieve the pressure, change the manager.”
Roy Keane and Ian Wright feel the Potter era is all-but over
Hammers News can confirm that vice-chair Karren Brady held talks with Nuno Espirito Santo last week.
Chief football correspondent Graeme Bailey also explained on Wednesday that sporting director Mark Noble admires Burnley manager Scott Parker, as well as two former Hammers in Michael Carrick and Frank Lampard.
“It just doesn’t feel like anything is going to get [better],” sighs Ian Wright, Arsenal’s second-highest all-time goalscorer. “Every week I look at West Ham and think, ‘I hope he can do it for his sake, to get a bit of momentum’.
“When the fans start getting the torches out…”
Roy Keane, meanwhile, is of the opinion that Graham Potter and West Ham was always, if not quite a match made in hell, then a marriage destined for a speedy divorce.
“Certain personalities suit certain clubs,” Keane argues. “It just doesn’t seem the right fit, does it?”
