West Ham: Karren Brady issues Graham Potter update after disaster start to season | OneFootball

A miserable start to the season for the Hammers

Karren Brady has backed Graham Potter to succeed as West Ham manager despite falling to a 3-0 defeat at newly promoted Sunderland in their opening Premier League game of the season.

This summer was deemed a fresh start with Potter being allowed a full pre-season to build a team in his image, but any early optimism after a productive pre-season quickly disappeared as Sunderland ran out comfortable victors on their return to the Premier League.

West Ham vice-chair Brady has, however, given her full support to Potter, hailing him “a great man-manager” in an interview with talkSPORT.

"I wish yesterday could start all over again. It's so tough to take. It's never easy for the supporters, the players, or the manager to lose 3-0, particularly in the opening game of the season,” Brady said.

"I spent a lot of time with the manager and the squad in America on the pre-season tour. The spirit amongst them is fantastic. I know that they'll be more disappointed, that they'll be the most disappointed people this morning.

"I know we'll see a reaction, and I know they want to turn it around, and they'll want to turn it around quickly.

Brady, who also said she is confident Lucas Paqueta will stay at the club, continued: "Graham is a forward-thinking manager. He's sort of calm under pressure. He's very detailed in his approach. He's a great man manager of players.

"He builds a special relationship with players, and they understand where he's coming from.

"He has a modern mindset, and all of those things mean it does take some time to put a team together, to get the team playing the way that you want.”

West Ham finished 14th last season, winning just two of their final 11 games. Potter has spent pre-season focusing on rebuilding the culture of the club, and Brady says he will get time to instil his ideas.

"West Ham is not a club that panics about its managers. We tend to stick with them, tend to support people, stick with them and see it through,” she added.

"I really hope he does well. He's a pleasure to work with. He's incredibly professional. I know the players respect him.

"I know his relationship with the players is good. I know he'll be sitting down with them today to have a long, hard think about what went wrong yesterday, expecting a reaction and expecting to put it right."

A tough start doesn’t get any easier for West Ham, who host Chelsea next Friday at the London Stadium.