West Ham United have this morning announced Julen Lopetegui as their new manager – and the Spaniard reportedly already wants to bring one Wolves player to the club.
The ex-Molineux boss is finally back in management, signing a two-year deal with the Hammers after they parted ways with David Moyes.
Lopetegui has remained in England after walking away from Wolves just days before the 2023/24 season, and had made no secret of the fact he was looking for another Premier League job.
Nothing came up during the season. But now, West Ham have swooped.
Lopetegui said this morning (via whufc.com): “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 have confirmed that Pablo Sanz (Assistant Head Coach), Oscar Caro (Head of Performance & Assistant Coach), Juan Vicente Peinado (Head of Analysis & Assistant Coach), Borja De Alba (Fitness Coach) and Edu Rubio will be joining Lopetegui.
And it’s possible Lopetegui could raid Wolves for one of their players…
West Ham boss Julen Lopetegui could make move for Wolves captain Max Kilman
It has now been reported by The Sun shortly after Lopetegui was announced as West Ham’s new head coach that the Spaniard could make a move for Wolves captain Max Kilman.
Kilman played every single minute of Wolves’ Premier League campaign in 2023/24, and was seen as vital by Gary O’Neil.
The £50,000-a-week ace struggled a little towards the end of the season after Craig Dawson got injured. But by and large it was another decent campaign for the Englishman, after assuming the captaincy from Ruben Neves.
It is claimed by The Sun that Wolves would demand around £45 million for any sale of Kilman this summer.
It is suggested that the Hammers are the frontrunners at the moment. Lopetegui is said to be keen to overhaul the defence – it was also reported last night that West ham are moving for Fabricio Bruno, a player Wolves made an approach for last year.
Lopetegui interest in Kilman is no surprise
West Ham have long been linked with Kilman and it was inevitable there would be another link as soon as Lopetegui was announced as the new Irons boss.
Kilman made 24 appearances under the Spaniard during his short tenure at Molineux, and the current Wolves captain clearly made an impression on him.
It was a bit of an indifferent campaign for Kilman, who had a very strong middle but suffered a real dip in form in the last couple of months.
Most Wolves fans would probably only want to see the back of him if a big offer came in. We will see what transpires, but you would imagine that there could be something in this.