Julen Lopetegui: West Ham fans can bring out the best in the players
Newly-appointed West Ham boss Julen Lopetegui believes the Premier League side's loyal base of supporters will be vital to push the Irons in the upcoming season.
Since hanging up his gloves, Lopetegui has had somewhat of an unsettled managerial career, hopping between clubs and country. He has managed from the youth levels of the Spanish national team all the way to the European Giants of Real Madrid.
He started his managerial career with Rayo Vallecano although, he was sacked just 10 games into the season after a poor string of results. He then took a head coach hiatus for the next five years and became a TV commentator.
After his venture into journalism, he managed the majority of Spain's youth teams, until 2014 when he joined Porto, taking them to quarter finals of the Champions League.
He was handed the reins of the Spanish national team in July 2016, but despite qualifying for the 2018 World Cup he was sacked on the eve of the tournament after being named as the new Real Madrid boss.
Lopetegui was sacked by Sevilla in October 2022 and moved to Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers in November.
Lopetegui decided to leave management and went into commentary for the next five years.
The Dragons finished runners-up in his first season in charge in 2014/15 and missed out on any domestic cups, which for a club the size of Porto is rare.
The Royal Spanish Football Federation were not best pleased with the news so close to the start of the World Cup and promptly sacked Lopetegui, replacing him with caretaker manager Fernando Hierro who took them as far as the round of 16.
Lopetegui, "Mis resultados en el Sevilla son extraordinarios si te fijas en el 98 por ciento del tiempo, y no en el último dos por ciento. Conseguimos una Europa League y, para mi, los tres cuartos puestos en Liga que nunca se habían conseguido en la historia del Sevilla". pic.twitter.com/C6hPwKzlEJ
— Eterno Capitán, Reyes 10 (@SevillistasU) December 13, 2022
With Bruno Lage getting the boot from Wolves in October, Lopetegui finally took the Molineux hot seat in November 2022 and won his first match in charge - a Carabao Cup tie over League Two Gillingham.
“I feel very happy, first of all, to be able to be part of the future of this big Club,” Lopetegui told West Ham TV.
“We will try to put our stamp on the club.
“I feel that we have a fantastic platform. I think the last few years have been very good years to have this base, of course, but my ambition as a coach is always to be better and better, to achieve more and bigger aims and to encourage and improve the players, the team, and to compete because football is about this – to compete. We are very ambitious about this.”
West Ham technical director Tim Steidten said: “We are very pleased to welcome Julen and his staff to our club.
“He was a stand-out candidate to become our head coach and I am personally delighted that we have chosen to work together.”
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