West Ham appoint Julen Lopetegui as head coach

West Ham have appointed Julen Lopetegui as their new head coach.

The Spanish coach takes charge from July 1 and will be tasked with keeping the Hammers in the hunt for European qualification.

David Moyes left West Ham at the end of the 2023-24 season with his contact expiring.

After three years of European qualification, which saw them reach the semifinals and quarterfinals of the Europa League and win the Conference League, Moyes had West Ham punching well above their weight.

The task for Lopetegui as it seems a good fit

Lopetegui’s task will now be to get the best out of their attacking talent will also keeping the solid defensive base which has been the mainstay of West Ham’s success in recent years.

The Spaniard did a great job to keep Wolves in the Premier League during the second half of the 2022-23 season but left surprisingly on the eve of the 2023-24 season due to differences in what Wolves wanted to do next and due to their financial limitations.

Lopetegui has his teams extremely well-organized and on paper this hire seems like a very good fit for everybody.

Lopetegui on his aims for West Ham

Speaking to the club website after his arrival, Lopetegui revealed he wants to make a “big noise” at West Ham and that can only mean one thing: trying to qualify for the Champions League.

After their recent European exploits that is the natural next step for the Hammers and if you look at what fellow Spaniard Unai Emery has done at Aston Villa, the same is possible for Lopetegui at West Ham with the right structure, recruitment and of course, a little bit of luck.

“I feel very happy, first of all, to be able to be part of the future of this big Club,” Lopetegui said. “We will try to put our stamp on the Club.

“I feel that we have a fantastic platform. I think the last few years have been very good years to have this base, of course, but my ambition as a coach is always to be better and better, to achieve more and bigger aims and to encourage and improve the players, the team, and to compete because football is about this – to compete. We are very ambitious about this.

“I am where I want to be. I am here because I want to be here and for us it was a fantastic day when we closed our agreement here because we our commitment is 100 per cent to be here. We had other opportunities but I am very happy that West Ham chose me because I chose West Ham too, so we are really happy about this.

“We came here with the idea and the thought to make a big, big noise. That's why we came here, and we are excited by this challenge. Of course, we are going to do our best to help the Club and the team to achieve to achieve the best level and to achieve our aims. I assure the fans that they are going to be key in all our achievements.”