A small snippet of news caught my eye in the last day or so which seems to have been overlooked in terms of its significance regarding the complete shift of the balance of power that has taken place inside two months at West Ham.
We know now that the club were lining up Luis Guilherme with a sale back to Flamenco in the January window, for £20 million. Understandable. Especially when viewed through the prism – apparently- of West Ham being in dire straits financially as we were told by Claret and Hugh’s associate editor Sean Whetstone just yesterday via twitter.
The fact that Graham Potter halted the sale of a twenty million-plus asset having ‘seen something’ in the young Brazilian that made the Hammers’ head coach want to retain his services speaks volumes and makes two points crystal clear:
Most Read on West Ham News
Number one: Graham Potter is calling the shots at West Ham. From his arrival in January to his total control of the squad, tactics, transfers, who stays and goes: Having got rid of Steidten, Potter is, for better or worse, doing it on his terms.
Secondly, if West Ham were really in the ‘dire situation’ claimed – (and to my memory, claimed last summer by Sullivan about six week before West Ham went out and blew £140 million) then Guilherme would have been out of the door at London Stadium so fast his teenage football boots wouldn’t have touched the ground.
The fact that Graham Potter’s opinion alone – being ‘minded’ to keep Guilherme – was enough to stop Sullivan adding £20 million to the balance sheet tells us all everything we need to know.
‘Things’ might not be perfect on the PSR situation at West Ham, but David Sullivans’ standard negotiating stance of claiming poverty is showing no sign of evolving any time soon. And Graham Potter is calling the shots.