Julen Lopetegui has just opened up about the West Ham United squad, and the Spaniard’s words should have the Hammers fans absolutely buzzing.
The size of the task that faces West Ham manager Julen Lopetegui at the London Stadium is not lost on anybody.
The 57-year-old former Wolves boss has to make six new signings at the very least, and has just a £90 million budget to work with, excluding players sales.
The squad left behind by David Moyes needs urgent attention. We will have just seven players under the age of 29 when the new season starts, if the current squad remains the same.
Lopetegui allegedly wants to wrap up the majority of his transfer business before the Hammers’ pre-season campaign begins on July 20th.
He had better get a move on if he is to do that, but this summer will not only be about bringing in new players.
The West Ham manager needs to put his stamp on his current group of players, regarding the playing style and system that he wants to implement at the London Stadium.
And the passionate way in which the Spaniard has just explained his summer plans certainly has me excited…
Exciting Julen Lopetegui speech about West Ham squad
The path to success for the Hammers boss is a very clear one.
Lopetegui sat down to speak with the club’s official website, and outlined his passionate plans for the Hammers squad.
“I think that we are going to have time to work on the skills of the players, but I think that we have a good base and a good platform to start working from,” Lopetegui said.
“They are playing with quality and of course I’m totally willing to try to improve this squad. We will be humble, but we can be humble and at the same time ambitious. I think this is the platform we have to try to put in [our philosophy] on the first day.”
The Spaniard continued, “You can be humble in football, but you can also show that you have big ambitions every day because this is your responsibility. When you wake up, you have to show every day that you want to improve, improve and improve, and this will be our demand.”
“David has done very good work here, I have huge respect for him as he has the third-most matches (managed) in the Premier League, which is incredible, but now we are here because we have this aim, this desire and this commitment with our work for the Club, too,” Lopetegui confirmed.
“So, we are going to work very, very hard first of all to try translate to the players our way to work every day, with a big demand. Of course, being able to have all this energy around the Club, too, I am sure that we are going to have the help of all the workers in the Club too.”
Finally, Lopetegui made it very clear that he’s fully aware of the task that awaits him at the London Stadium, “It is never easy because there is nothing easy in football. All the things you are going to achieve come with big challenges, but we believe in this way to work and we are going to try to do it.”
Those words from Julen Lopetegui should fill the West Ham fans with hope ahead of the new season.
It’s fairly obvious that the Spaniard needs to make at least six signings this summer, probably more, if the Hammers are to be competitive on all fronts next season.
We all know that the West Ham boss needs to sign a new striker, centre-back, left winger, central midfielder, centre-back and one or two full-backs at the very least.
However, he does have plenty of talent at his disposal already, and improving the players he has amongst his ranks should be one of his main remits – especially the youngsters.
The West Ham fans should be delighted about the fact that we have a proper ‘coach’ at the helm now in the form of Julen Lopetegui.
And I cannot wait to see the improvements that he will undoubtedly make at the club over the next few years.
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