West Ham set to approach former Porto boss as Lopetegui replacement

After West Ham's disastrous 3-1 loss to Leicester City on Wednesday, the Hammers higher-ups may finally be ready to sack Julen Lopetegui.

The former Real Madrid boss leads the next Premier League manager to be sacked odds at all the major soccer betting sites and tons of huge names have been linked to the West Ham job.

One of those names is former Porto manager Sérgio Conceição. Multiple reports from England say the Hammers may approach him to talk about taking over for Lopetegui before the New Year.

Lopetegui hanging on by a thread

Manchester United’s Erik ten Hag was the first Premier League manager to be sacked this season. Sir Jim Ratcliffe gave the Dutchman the axe on October 28. It wasn’t exactly surprising that Ten Hag was fired then, but he was far from the mostly likely manager to go.

Lopetegui has been one of the top two managers most likely to be sacked next since at least mid-October, according to the EPL betting odds.

West Ham won just two of their first eight league matches and have been in the top half just once this season. They have lost seven of their 14 Premier League matches so far, half as many as they lost all of last season.

The betting sites give Lopetegui $2.37 odds of being the next manager sacked in the Premier League. Southampton boss Russell Martin is next at $3, while Everton’s Sean Dyche rounds out the top three with $3.5 odds.

‘31 shots’: Lopetegui explains poor performance

Lopetegui had a chance to earn a stay of execution on Wednesday when West Ham took on newly-promoted Leicester City and their new manager Ruud van Nistelrooy.

The Hammers were betting favourites and we even backed them to win in our EPL predictions. Lopetegui’s side made us and the bookmakers look silly by losing 3-1 to the Foxes.

When asked after the match about what happened and why his team failed to earn three points from such a winnable match, the Spaniard insisted that his side did well in the match.

“I think that we deserved much more. We had 31 shots on the opposite goal…We are very frustrated. The players didn’t deserve this,” he said.

Conceição incoming?

Deserved or not, West Ham did lose to Leicester and it could cost Lopetegui his job. If Lopetegui is sacked, Sérgio Conceição looks like the most likely man to replace him.

The 50-year-old last resigned from his boyhood club Porto at the end of last season due to disputes with the club ownership and poor performances in the league.

Conceição’s teams were known for playing scrappy, defensive soccer, so it is unclear how he would be received at the London Stadium.

West Ham’s last manager, David Moyes, was supposedly sacked because the club wanted a manager more willing to play free-flowing, attacking soccer.

Conclusion

Given their precarious position in the table though, we are willing to bet that the West Ham fans will accept anything if it means more wins this season. Who knows, they may even be open to bringing David Moyes back