Who is Julen Lopetegui and what can he bring to West Ham?  | OneFootball

Julen Lopetegui has agreed to replace David Moyes at West Ham at the end of the season.

Moyes returned for a second spell with the club threatened by relegation in December 2019. He leaves after three consecutive years of European qualification and a first trophy in over four decades with the 2023 Europa Conference League.

It still was not enough for owner David Sullivan, who has decided to look to former Wolves and Spain coach Lopetegui to take the club further forward.

He joins fellow sons of Spain’s Basque Country Unai Emery, Mikel Arteta and Andoni Iraola in the Premier League.

So, just who is Lopetegui and what can he bring to West Ham?

Early coaching career

After a 17-year goalkeeping career spent in Spain, mainly for Rayo Vallecano, Lopetegui moved into coaching aged 36.

He started by helping Spain finish runners-up in the 2003 under-17 European Championship.

That promise encouraged Rayo to take a punt on their former player, but he was sacked as coach after only ten matches. A five year hiatus as a television commentator ended when he returned to his true passion as coach of Real Madrid Castilla, the club’s B-team, in the Spanish third tier.

He made a name for himself in the lower leagues and was soon approached by the Spanish FA, who wanted him to rejuvenate Spain’s youth teams. It proved a success, as he won the 2012 European under-19 Championship and the 2013 Under-21 Euros.

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Lopetegui returned to club management with Porto in 2014. He spent much of an unprecedented huge budget on seven Spanish signings that summer and successfully employed a possession-based style of play favoured by the likes of Barcelona. Pleasing on the eye, it failed to end Porto’s trophy drought and he was sacked midway through his second season.

Lopetegui on the big stage

The Spanish FA still held him in high regard and the son of a Basque stone-lifting weightlifter, amid interest from Wolves in England, was named manager of the Spain national side in July 2016.

An impressive qualification run to the 2018 World Cup counted for nothing when it emerged he had agreed to join Real Madrid after the finals. His contract was terminated before the tournament in Russia began.

Lopetegui’s decision to take over at Madrid ultimately backfired, as he was sacked after just 14 games in charge. That made it two jobs lost in the space of five months for the Spaniard, whose reputation was rapidly deteriorating.

Sevilla came calling in 2019. He rebuilt his reputation by winning a record seventh Europa League and qualifying for the Champions League by finishing fourth in La Liga in three consecutive seasons.

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A slow start to the 2022/23 season led to his dismissal and this time Wolves made sure they got their man.

What went wrong at Wolves?

Lopetegui succeeded Bruno Large in November with Wolves close to the relegation zone. He kept them up but did little to suggest a bright future at Molineux.

During the summer he criticised the club for their lack of ambition financially and was sacked just three days before the start of the current season.

With four jobs in eight years and an underwhelming previous tenure in the Premier League, West Ham fans can be forgiven for not being excited by Lopetegui’s impending appointment.

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Any positivity should perhaps be based on his time with Sevilla, where he won a trophy and qualified for the Champions League.

West Ham may not be too far away from that under Moyes, and whether or not Lopetegui will prove to be a significant upgrade remains to be seen.