Potter's West Ham gamble is a make-or-break moment

Doubts remain over new Hammers man after Chelsea failure

- RICHARD JOLLY

Graham Potter made his comeback with an apology and a smiling level of self-awareness. He had been out of work for 20 months but unemployment has rarely been so high profile. Potter has been a constant in the conversations, a man forever supposedly spotted on shortlists. Many a major job has come and gone; Potter may have been close to some, but not the more prestigious posts at England or Manchester United. Now he can be removed from such discussions. As West Ham hired their second manager since Potter left Chelsea, he ended his exile.

“I apologise that everyone is flipping sick of Graham Potter being linked with this job and that job,” he joked. Everyone perhaps including Potter himself. There have been times over the past two years when it has been tempting to wonder where he would resurface; West Ham’s club website felt the need to say he had been “awaiting the right opportunity” to explain his absence. Perhaps he had not wanted to plunge himself into unnecessary danger by taking over a relegation-threatened side. But even going to West Ham, realistically the best job he could get in England now, raises a question for their board: if Potter is the ideal candidate, why was he overlooked for Julen Lopetegui last summer?