The state of the dressing room atmosphere at London Stadium leaves much to be desired: Lopetegui seems to have a long list of players whom he’s fallen out with or who want to leave in January- that much is clear from the cold, almost detached attitude he displayed toward some last night in the home fixture against Wolves.
When Lucas Paquetá was summoned from the bench, Lopetegui ignored him as he waited to come on: There were no final words of wisdom or good luck wishes, leading Jeff Stelling to wonder out loud on talksport.com if Paquetá was now added to the ranks of want-away players.
Ditto Mohammed Kudus upon substitution in the closing minutes, muttering, tearing off his wrist bandage and aiming an indecipherable rant towards Lopetegui as he left the pitch.
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Relations have been ‘fractious’ between Kudus and Lopetegui since the Brentford bust up. The player was rumoured to have asked his agent to get him out of London Stadium last month, with a transfer to Liverpool being said to be Kudus’ first choice.
Now via teamtalk and tbrfootball.com, Another report links Kudus with a January move, this time to Arsenal. The Gunners are one of the few Premier League clubs able to pay the £80 plus million it’ll need to take Kudus away from West Ham and are reported to be interested as: “Rather than sign an out-and-out-striker as many have predicted, a move for the more versatile Mohammed Kudus is being sought. … Kudus can operate anywhere across the front line and has been in Arsenal’s sights ever since arriving in England.”
West Ham of course have an urgent mini-rebuild required in January to supplement their front line and midfield. If Lopetegui stays in post, the tension between player and coach may well mean reports like this have substance and Kudus is sold, to fund that rebuild, improve West Hams borderline PSR situation and end the toxic player /coach situation.
Whilst it would be good business it would be very disappointing to see talent like that leave the club before the summer, when we have had to come to terms with the reality that he’d probably be leaving anyway.