It’s been a season of transition for West Ham, and while European qualification has proven just out of reach, there are positives to take—and players who’ve made a serious mark under Graham Potter.
We spoke to James Jones of LondonWolrd to reflect on the highs and lows—and where the club stands heading into the summer.
We spoke to James Jones of LondonWolrd to reflect on the highs and lows—and where the club stands heading into the summer.
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00:00It's been a season of transition for West Ham and while European qualification has proven out of reach, there are positives to take and players who've made a serious mark under Graeme Potter.
00:14Gerard Bowen's consistency, the emergence of George Erthy and the tactical clarity Potter has slowly brought in all offers reasons for optimism.
00:23But questions remain about squad depth, defensive resilience and whether this team can truly push into the top six again.
00:31With a big summer ahead, West Ham must decide, stick with the long-term project or rethink it once again.
00:38We spoke to James Jones of London World to reflect on the highs and lows and where the club stands heading into the summer.
00:44So James, looking at West Ham and obviously Falk Krug making the comments to do with the mentality throughout the camp at the moment.
00:56I mean, obviously it's not the best look when you are conceding late goals, conceding goals that turn possible wins into draws or then even losses at times as well.
01:04It's been a bit of a case of, you know, unfortunate at times for, you know, Potter's side and in terms of where they go with this mentality, he needs to turn that around definitely in the new season.
01:18But it's obviously been a bit disappointing for West Ham fans and Falk Krug's obviously come out and said that as well.
01:23So what's your sort of response to Falk Krug? How are you feeling about his comments?
01:27And are they sort of fair comments as well? Because obviously, you know, there must be something not quite clicking at the moment due to, you know, the results just turning on their head, especially so late on in games.
01:39West Ham fans must not really be able to settle until that very, very final whistle at the moment.
01:46Yeah, the last couple of months have been very, very frustrating for West Ham fans.
01:50Obviously, clearly, Nicholas Falk Krug being another one that's come out, come out after the Southampton game where, you know, on paper, that should have been a relatively comfortable win coming up against what is currently the worst team in Premier League history in terms of points.
02:06The earliest team to ever be relegated from the Premier League.
02:09You go into a home game against a team like that and you kind of, nothing's guaranteed in football these days, but you kind of think, yeah, this should be a comfortable three points.
02:19And we're 1-0 up and Southampton equalising the 93rd minute and the game should have been out of sight by then.
02:26And Southampton deserved it as well. We weren't exactly playing very well.
02:30So when he comes out after the game and is visibly angry, upset, calls out his teammates, says that they've not got the right mentality,
02:40a lot of West Ham fans praised him for that and said, finally, we've got someone who clearly cares.
02:46Because all season, it's been difficult finding any kind of that passion or that hunger to win games and to do well.
02:55It's been that type of season for West Ham.
02:57So the fans were behind him. The fans were like, this is what we need. We need a player like this.
03:01We need someone with this kind of experience. Yes, he's been injured for most of the season, but that doesn't matter.
03:06But the fact is, is that what he says is absolutely bang on.
03:09So there was an expectation that there'd be a reaction in the follow-up game against Brighton last weekend.
03:14And, you know, we came from behind 1-0 to be 2-1 up with five minutes to go.
03:18And we still lost the game. We conceded two goals in the 89th minute and the 93rd minute and you lose the game.
03:24And that kind of underlined Paul Krug's comments from a week earlier, whereby the mentality clearly isn't there.
03:31The hunger's not there. Now, is it to do with the fact that there's nothing to play for for West Ham?
03:37Mathematically safe. I don't think we can mathematically finish higher than 13th now.
03:42So there really isn't anything to play for. Is it that just simply the case that the players have just gone, well, you know, they've got half their mind on their summer holidays?
03:54Or is there something a little bit deeper going on in the dressing room?
03:57The fact that Falker's come out quite strongly against some of his teammates suggests that maybe something isn't right within the dressing room.
04:04But it's got to change, you know, dropping seven points in your last six games to late goals, be one defeat in eight or one defeat in nine.
04:14And the whole, just generally the whole feeling around the club would be like, OK, we've turned the corner.
04:19Let's get the season out of the way. We'll go again next season after the summer business.
04:23But instead, there's a lot of negativity. There's question marks around Graham Potter.
04:26There's question marks around a lot of the players. And it's avoidable.
04:29It's just got to keep playing for 95, 96 minutes every week and, you know, doing the basics.
04:35And it's the basics that's cost us, I think, over the last few weeks.
04:38So the fans are behind Falker's comments, particularly after that Brighton result.