IF you’d have asked the sixty thousand paying fans who attended the game yesterday, I suspect there would have been a big majority firmly in the “[_fire Graham Potter now_](https://www.claretandhugh.info/claret-and-hugh-exclusive-potter-totters-but-one-replacement-ruled-out-categorically/) “camp. Just two home wins in his whole Premier League tenure makes for a grim statistic along with all the others prominently discussed this weekend. _The fortnightly procession from Stratford station to London stadium is becoming a march of doom._
However much Potter was criticised on Match Of The Day last night – being described as _‘baffled on the sidelines_‘ and without a plan, today’s article by the BBC’s chief footie correspondent [Simon Stone](https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cj9zer413ydo) pours cold water on the idea of West Ham’s board acting immediately to rectify the situation.
Stone suggests that :” _Next week, unbeaten Crystal Palace visit London Stadium for a game where huge demonstrations against the ownership are planned. If that game doesn’t go well, a tense atmosphere could turn toxic…After that it’s a trip to Merseyside and a meeting with Moyes’ improving Everton before a trip to Arsenal, where West Ham have won on their past two visits, including under Potter in February….**That feels a more obvious time to reassess”.**_
After the Arsenal game of course there is another curséd International Break, which may be a more realistic timeline for West Ham to have all their ducks in a row to replace Potter. Shades of Lopetegui’s series of “must-win” games, in that case, with Sullivan clinging to the idea that he may not need to fire the coach he never wanted anyway.
And in the meantime? If Simon stone is right, three more games with clueless Potter on the touch line, along with more demoralisation, more points lost, more fans alienated and the Hammers – by the October ‘break’ – rooted to the foot of the Premier League.
You’d have to hope Stone is wrong and the increasing noise around club protests starting at Crystal Palace convince the Chairman to make Potter the sacrificial lamb to throw to the masses: That will, he’ll be hoping, divert from the dissatisfaction with him and vice Chair Karren Brady. That’s a whole other story, but focussing on the football, nobody wants to endure another three games like yesterday before Potter is consigned to history.