A prominent and outspoken journalist has launched a scathing attack on sacked Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou while tipping him to take over at West Ham next.
Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy sparked controversy by sacking Ange Postecoglou after he led the club to Europa League glory and a first trophy for 17 years.
A place in the lucrative re-formatted Champions League – worth as much as £80m – proving as big for Spurs as the trophy itself.
Meanwhile over in east London, the jury very much remains out on Graham Potter at West Ham.
Fast start needed to keep pressure off Potter at West Ham
Potter has won just five of his 19 games in charge of the Hammers.
The mood around the club is on the floor after 18 months in which West Ham have won just 15 of their last 57 Premier League games.
A huge summer rebuild is required at the London Stadium but Potter has no money to spend until sales are made.
And interest is unsurprisingly limited in a squad of mostly under-performing, highly-paid players.
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Potter will start the season under pressure after being given a period of grace by West Ham fans.
Club legend Tony Cottee has suggested Potter could be in trouble at West Ham if the team doesn’t start well in the first six games.
There is no lack of irony in the situations at West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur.
Hammers vice-chair Karren Brady, who famously fell out with Spurs chief Levy, once made it very clear she would like Postecoglou to replace David Moyes.
Brady wrote a column raving about Postecoglou but he ended up going to north London as Moyes stayed on another year.
Top journalist rips into Postecoglou and tips him for West Ham
A further layer of irony is added by the fact interest from Spurs in Potter pushed West Ham to make the change in January.
When it was announced he had been relieved of his duties, many West Ham fans called on David Sullivan to embarrass Spurs by hiring Postecoglou if Potter can’t turn things around.
Now a top journalist has ripped into Postecoglou while also tipping the sacked Spurs boss to replace Potter at West Ham.
Jonathan Liew is one of the most intelligent and articulate football journalists around.
The Guardian reporter is not one to mince his words in dissecting the big talking points in the game.
Postecoglou’s sacking has certainly been one of those recently.
Writing in his latest column, Liew absolutely tore into Postecoglou’s CV, record, tactics and personality.
He also suggests Postecoglou has created an illusion he is a top manager – but predicts it will be exposed by the next move he makes.
Liew has clashed with the Aussie in press exchanges. And at the end of his withering riposte, the Guardian man predicts West Ham are one of a small collection of clubs who may offer Postecoglou a Premier League return soon.
Because he says the life has drained from the club and Hammers fans are simply ‘desperate to feel something again’.
Journalist says Hammers fans ‘just want to feel something again’
“And so the Postecoglou who declared at Celtic that he was “exactly where I want to be” now seeks another fresh start,” Liew writes.
“Perhaps a sideways move to another Premier League club, perhaps even a step up in class to the Greek Super League, the Korean K League, the League of Ireland. This part will not be a problem.
“Football has no shortage of soiled dreamers, clubs who missed the gold rush, fans whose only real desire is to feel something again. Marseille, Roma, Benfica, Schalke, West Ham. Leeds sacking Daniel Farke in November and going all in on Angeball feels like a perfect fit.
“There is of course an irony here. In his meticulously cultivated personal branding, Postecoglou often likes to paint himself as a throwback, an outsider, a counter-culturalist, the grizzled underdog. But in his reliance on patter and persuasion, bluster and bluff, he is in fact a very modern footballing phenomenon. This is Ange’s world now, and we’re all bulls——- in it.”
Liew’s stinging assessment is hardly a ringing endorsement for what Postecoglou might bring.
But given the way the window looks like it might pan out for the Hammers, Potter will have his hands tied improving the team.
And he has already shown he cannot get a tune out of the existing squad.
So maybe this is one to watch if Postecoglou doesn’t take up another role elsewhere first.