Finally the end of term beckons. Hammers fans will breathe a sigh of relief as no more ritual agony to be witnessed every week: It has been a season to consign to the bin as soon as possible. However the small matter of an away trip to already down and out 19th placed Ipswich Town beckons on the last day with no jeopardy for the Hammers- let’s be grateful for small mercies.
These three points matter. Ipswich, without a home win in their last eight, will be keen to sign off in the Premier League in front of their home fans with a decent attempt at a win. For West Ham, a loss could easily drop them down to seventeenth if Spurs and Manchester United win: Three points could elevate them above Wolves into fourteenth.
Much easier to recruit from ‘almost mid-table’ fourteenth than ‘just survived’ seventeenth spot this summer. Potter will take whatever comfort he can get from improving his poor four wins in eighteen record as West Ham manager. In their article ‘Graham Potter urges West Ham to find another level‘, Beinports.com omit to suggest that Potter himself needs to find ‘another attacker’ as well as just fine words.
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As usual, Potter can talk the talk, claiming he knows what is needed:
“We have to lift the level because you can’t sit around waiting for the margins to turn. You’ve got to make them turn. But that’s fine. That’s what we know. We feel like we’ve made the team more competitive [since he arrived], and every game we’ve been competitive..But nevertheless, the points tally, what we want to do, isn’t as big as we’d like. Having said that, attack-wise, we’ve made some steps, but not enough.”
It will be good if – just for once – he can match words with actions and show more attacking ambition against the nineteenth – placed side.
And also just for once it would be nice to write about a Hammers victory next week and sign off with some optimism and – as many C and H readers have written – some positivity. If Potter can give us glimpses of next seasons’ shape and show more attacking intent then we may go away in a more upbeat frame of mind. But I’m not holding my breath come Sunday when the team is announced. Rumours from comments by his national coach suggest Michail Antonio might even be on the Hammers’ bench: Forget the longer term that would just be an upbeat ending to a terrible season.