West Ham United fans will be very interested indeed to read some comments from Jose Mourinho on Julen Lopetegui more than six years ago.
Julen Lopetegui replaced David Moyes as the new West Ham head coach at the London Stadium officially on July 1st of this year.
However, the Spaniard has found it tough going in charge of the Hammers so far.
It was claimed last month that Lopetegui’s job is already under threat, but it has since been clarified that that is in fact not the case.
The Spaniard obviously needs plenty of time before we can properly judge him, but the early signs are that his playing style is not too dissimilar to Moyes’s!
That said, there were definitely signs of improvement nine days ago against Ipswich Town, and we all have to give him the benefit of the doubt for now.
Whilst he had success with Sevilla, there are question marks hanging over his time in charge of Real Madrid and Spain.
And now some comments from Jose Mourinho back in 2018 are extremely interesting to read.
Jose Mourinho’s comments on Julen Lopetegui from 2018
The 62-year-old former Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Manchester United, Tottenham, Chelsea and Porto manager has won pretty much everything there is to win in the game.
So when he speaks about football, people usually listen intently.
His take on Lopetegui’s sacking from Spain just before the 2018 World Cup kicked off is incredibly interesting to read now.
Back in 2018, Mourinho seemed to hint that Lopetegui may have ‘sacked himself’ from the Spain job, in other words, the Portuguese suggested that the Spaniard resigned.
Mourinho also alluded to Lopetegui’s failed stint in charge Real Madrid when making his point, as quoted by The Express.
He said, “I think it’s a strange situation.“
“I don’t know if Spain sacked the manager of if the manager sacked himself with the way everything happened between himself and Real Madrid.“
“I feel sorry for the manager of course because he went with the team for the last two years and of course he would deserve to be with the team, but I also understand the position of the federation. They just gave him a new contract for the future.“
Now, we all know that Lopetegui walked away from Wolves in August 2023 due to broken promises from the baord.
So it’s clear to see that the 58-year-old Hammers manager does not suffer fools lightly.
Also, if he’s not happy with his own performance, he will not hang around beyond his welcome.
If Julen Lopetegui is not producing the goods, whether that be through his own poor performance or because of a lack of backing from the board, he will not see out the season in charge of West Ham.
I firmly believe that statement to be true, and now Jose Mourinho’s comments on Julen Lopetegui have just confirmed it to me.
