West Ham United are reportedly close to agreeing a deal for Julen Lopetegui to take over from David Moyes.
Moyes’ tenure at the Hammers appears to be drawing to a close as his current deal is set to expire at the end of the season. He recently revealed he would hold talks with owner David Sullivan before making a decision on his future.
However, West Ham have been actively looking for a replacement, having engaged in discussions with both Lopetegui and Sporting CP’s Ruben Amorim. The latter had even flown to London before acknowledging that the timing was wrong.
According to the Guardian, negotiations between the club and the former Wolves boss, Lopetegui have not been concluded although the parties are close to ‘agreeing a deal.’ They add that a decision will not be made until the board hold talks with Moyes later this month.
Although several other candidates have also been considered, some at the London Stadium still believe that Amorim would be the best person to succeed the Scot. Amorim, who is under contract at Sporting until 2026, has a reported £12.8million release clause and it is unclear whether the Hammers are willing to pay that fee – leaving Lopetegui as the frontrunner.
Despite Fulham’s stunning 5-0 win over West Ham in December, manager Marco Silva has stated that the result bears no impact on their forthcoming return encounter at London Stadium.
West Ham were struck down hard during the onslaught at Craven Cottage which followed an identical thrashing dealt by Fulham to Nottingham Forest just days prior.
Now, with only one win in five Premier League matches under his belt – a run which includes a disheartening 3-1 defeat to Forest – Silva is determinedly steering his team towards a course correction.
“The result against West Ham is not going to have any impact on Sunday,” Silva said.
“We all follow the Premier League – we are living this competition – and it’s really tough for any club to win a game – imagine winning 5-0.
“It was a moment that happened. OK, credit for ourselves, for our players, the way we did it. If it’s difficult to win a football match, imagine winning 5-0 back-to-back.
Referee Darren England is set to make his Premier League VAR comeback this weekend, marking his first stint since the controversial incident where Luis Diaz’s legitimate goal for Liverpool was wrongly ruled out against Tottenham.
It’s been over half a year since England has taken on the role of video referee, and he’s now lined up for Fulham’s clash with West Ham United at the London Stadium. Following the blunder with Diaz’s disallowed goal, England was temporarily removed from all officiating duties but has gradually returned, acting as both the main referee and the fourth official in various matches.
It took nearly three months after the error before he refereed another top-flight game, overseeing just two Premier League fixtures up to February 10, alongside nine Championship games. The 38-year-old has also served as VAR in a couple of FA Cup games since the incident last September, but this weekend will be his first time back in the VAR seat for a Premier League match since then.
PGMOL’s review of the mistake described it as ‘a critical lapse in concentration and clear lack of focus… by an individual match official which saw him inexplicably “check completing” an incorrect on-field decision. ‘ England had incorrectly confirmed ‘check complete’ for what should have been a Diaz goal against Spurs, leading to confusion as the original offside call stood, denying Liverpool the goal.
The mistake was quickly realised, with audio from the incident later being made public. England resorted to expletives as his colleagues clarified his error, reports the Mirror. However, with play having resumed, England was unable to reverse the game.
Following the blunder, the PGMOL issued a statement: “As stated shortly after the full-time whistle on Saturday evening, we acknowledged in a statement that a significant human error had occurred during the aforementioned match, which we recognise should have resulted in a goal being awarded through VAR intervention.
West Ham’s aspirations for a European return took another hit following a disappointing 2-0 home defeat to Fulham, with Andreas Pereira scoring both goals. This comes after the Hammers’ 2-0 loss to Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final last Thursday.
The defeat to Fulham also cost them the opportunity to move up to sixth place in the Premier League and back into the European mix. This was Fulham’s first victory at West Ham since 2001 and having dominated the reverse fixture 5-0 in December, they completed a league double over their London rivals for the first time since 1966.
Based on this lacklustre performance, Leverkusen will not be overly concerned about the return match. Despite this, West Ham had an early chance to take the lead when Lucas Paqueta’s pass found Vladimir Coufal in the box, but his shot was saved by Bernd Leno and Michail Antonio subsequently blazed over from close range.
Mohammed Kudus then narrowly missed before the lively Paqueta, who is suspended for the Leverkusen game, hit the side-netting.
Despite a promising start, West Ham found themselves on the back foot after Fulham’s first attack just nine minutes in, a moment that would have left manager David Moyes exasperated.
Konstantinos Mavropanos’ attempt to intercept a deep cross from Alex Iwobi only resulted in him inadvertently setting up Pereira, who had been left unmarked by Nayef Aguerd.
The Brazilian easily slotted the ball past Hammers keeper Lukasz Fabianski and into an open goal.
Pereira nearly doubled his tally moments later when he slid in to connect with Willian’s tempting cross, but his effort went wide.
Coufal, who has yet to find the back of the net for West Ham since joining three and a half years ago, demonstrated why when he squandered a decent chance from Paqueta’s cross.