Julen Lopetegui faces early battle to win over West Ham fans with transfer question key | OneFootball

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For all the success of his time in Seville, and even for the fine job performed on these shores in steering Wolves to safety, mention Julen Lopetegui’s name and the mind immediately leaps to those five miserable months in the middle of 2018.

Destined to lead his country into a World Cup for which Spain were among the favourites at the start of the summer, by Halloween he had lost the two biggest jobs in Spanish football, ousted on the eve of the tournament for agreeing terms with Real Madrid, then victim of the Bernabeu hierarchy’s ruthless streak within 138 days.

In a recent interview with ESPN, Lopetegui gave a series of expansive, eloquent answers on the pressures of management, his coaching philosophy and what it is liked to be first courted and then sacked. At first mention of the specifics of his Spain exit, however, he interrupted: “That forms part of my past.”

Eventually, the 57-year-old went on to give his take on that summer of six years ago, expressing more regret at the actions of the Spanish FA (then led by a certain Luis Rubiales) than his own. The message, though, was clear and he will arrive at West Ham this summer a man determined not to be defined by what has gone before.

Since quitting Wolves on the eve of the new season, Lopetegui has been waiting for the right job. He remained in England through to January, determined that it would come in the Premier League, but at a club capable of matching his ambition, having walked out of Molineux in a row over transfers.

That, along with technical director Tim Steidten, Lopetegui will be given licence and resource to plot a significant overhaul of his new squad suggests West Ham are a suitor fitting of the bill.

Yet he faces an early task to convince external sceptics of his vision, with some underwhelmed by a supposed safe appointment and a number of critics already waiting for him to fail as vindication for the view that David Moyes has been harshly treated in recent weeks.

New appointment: Julen Lopetegui is set to replace David Moyes as West Ham manager

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The chief reservation is over style of play, with Lopetegui not seen as the kind of swashbuckling progressive many wanted as tonic to four-and-a-half season of ‘Moyesball’.

But this West Ham squad, even with significant upgrades, will not become the Stratford Globetrotters overnight.

In Brighton, many have seen a cautionary tale this season: the Seagulls play thrilling football under Roberto De Zerbi, but are 11th, two places below West Ham, and were knocked out of Europe at an earlier stage, too.

Lopetegui may not be a freewheeler, but he has previous for making Sevilla a more possession-based team, only Madrid and Barcelona averaging more of the ball during his three full seasons in charge.

He may only be a few places along the risk spectrum from Moyes, but demands that his teams control matches, something that under the Scot, even at their best, West Ham have rarely done.

Pragmatic he may be, but these things are relative. Ultimately, we are talking about a man who once played under Johan Cruyff at Barcelona, who moulded Spain’s youth teams in the image of the senior side when tiki-taka was at its peak, who was brought up drinking whatever it is in the Basque country water that has made Mikel Arteta, Xabi Alonso and Andoni Iraola three of Europe’s most exciting young coaches.

The expectation is that Lopetegui will revert to the 4-3-3 system that brought so much success at Sevilla, a move that ought to suit the likes of Mohammed Kudus, as well as a crop of midfielders that have often looked exposed when asked to play in a two.

Lopetegui faces an early task to convince external sceptics of his vision, with some underwhelmed by a supposed safe appointment

How the new man aligns with Steidten will be key. Lopetegui worked under arguably Europe’s most famed sporting director in Monchi at Sevilla and knows the structure he is coming into at West Ham, whereas Moyes was already in post when Steidten arrived last summer and their relationship was often uneasy.

“The sporting director is the one laying down the guidelines along which a club is run,” Lopetegui told ESPN this month. “If that fits with your view, if he has the owners and directors on his side, convinced by that approach, then perfect.”

Moyes once arrived at West Ham a man still trying to repair his reputation years after his Manchester United woe, but will leave something close to a legend for his trophy-winning feat.

After a series of unseemly endings, Lopetegui succeeds him, likewise with something still to prove.