David Moyes is out of contract at West Ham at the end of the season and the Hammers jave a decision to make on whether to move on from the manager after four-and-a-half years.
West Ham United are on the verge of making Julen Lopetegui their next permanent manager, it has been claimed.
Current boss David Moyes is out of contract at the end of the season and, while he has maintained no decision will be made before the close of the campaign, speculation has mounted over an exit for the Scot. The Hammers held talks with Sporting CP boss Ruben Amorim in April but to no avail, and now it appears Lopetegui is close to landing the job.
The former Spain boss, 57, has been out of work since leaving Molineux on the eve of the Premier League season. He led Wolves to a 13th-place finish after taking over with the team bottom of the table, and signed this season’s joint-top scorer Matheus Cunha.
West Ham finished a point behind Wolves in the table last season, and are three points above them this term as both teams chase a top-half finish. Both teams still have to face title contenders Manchester City before the end of the campaign, with the Londoners travelling to the Etihad Stadium on the final day.
According to The Guardian, talks with Lopetegui have been ‘gathering pace’. However, there are still understood to be some final steps to take care of before any announcement is made.
Moyes, for his part, is due to hold talks with the board after the final game against Manchester City. An extended stay for the former Manchester United and Everton boss – who rejoined the Hammers midway through the 2019-20 season – has not been ruled out.
Lopetegui, who previously managed Sevilla and Real Madrid, has also been linked with the AC Milan job with Stefano Pioli tipped to leave the San Siro at the end of the season. Paulo Fonseca is another to have been linked with both Milan and West Ham, but Lopetegui appears to now be the front-runner to take over at the London Stadium.
I have nothing to announce. I am happy,” Moyes said in April after West Ham were knocked out of the Europa League by Bayer Leverkusen. “We are just getting on with the job. We are playing games. We have five left to play. We will get on with it. I said there was no real big rush to do anything and I still feel that way.
We had a pretty good start to the year. We have kept it going and we have probably been sixth, seventh, eighth. I am hoping we can keep ourselves in that position. We have been there most of the year.
His team have now played the first two of those five games, slumping to a 5-2 defeat at Crystal Palace before drawing at home to Liverpool last time out. If they lose at Chelsea on Sunday, it will all but end their hopes of a top-six finish after a dismal run which has seen them win just one of their last eight league games.
