West Ham hired Graham Potter as the coach on Thursday, a day after Julen Lopetegui was fired.
Potter has been out of management since he was fired by Chelsea in 2023 after just seven months in the job at Stamford Bridge. He signed a two-and-a-half-year contract.
“It was important to me that I waited until a job came along that I felt was right for me, and equally that I was the right fit for the club I am joining. That is the feeling I have with West Ham United,” he said.
Potter takes over a team that has won only three of its last 11 games and is 14th in the standings, seven points above the relegation zone.
Former Real Madrid and Spain coach Lopetegui paid the price for that poor run when his departure was confirmed on Wednesday. He was hired last May to take the club to new heights after previous manager David Moyes ended West Ham's 43-year wait for a major trophy by winning the Europa Conference League in 2023.
The 49-year-old Potter said West Ham had “everything in place to become consistently successful, both on and off the pitch.”
"You don’t win a European trophy by fluke – there has to be a good bedrock at a football club for that to happen, and the challenge now is to take that on and build the next steps, to develop a team and a club that the supporters can be proud of,” he said.
Potter enjoyed an impressive rise after beginning his coaching career at Ostersunds in Sweden in 2011.
He took over at Swansea in 2018 and by 2022 was in charge of Premier League giant Chelsea after a stint at Brighton.
But his reputation took a hit at Chelsea, which was undergoing a turbulent period following the takeover by U.S. owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital. He lasted just six months after a run of just seven wins from 22 league games.
West Ham said Potter was its “unanimous choice."
His first game will be on Friday at Aston Villa in the third round of the FA Cup.
James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
New West Ham United manager Graham Potter takes part in a press conference at the London Stadium, in London, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)
New West Ham United manager Graham Potter takes part in a press conference at the London Stadium, in London, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)
West Ham's manager Julen Lopetegui looks on before the start of the English Premier League soccer match between West Ham United and Liverpool at the London Stadium in London, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
FILE - Chelsea's head coach Graham Potter celebrates at the end of the English Premier League soccer match between Leicester City and Chelsea at King Power stadium in Leicester, England, Saturday, March 11, 2023.(AP Photo/Rui Vieira, File)
MAPUTO, Mozambique (AP) — Mozambique's main opposition leader returned from self-imposed exile on Thursday clutching a bible and saying he still rejects the results of a disputed election last year that has sparked more than two months of protests and a violent crackdown by security forces.
While Venancio Mondlane stepped off a plane, security forces fired tear gas at hundreds of his supporters who gathered near the main international airport to welcome him home. Mondlane arrived at Mavalane International Airport in the capital, Maputo, to applause from some airport workers and then kneeled in the arrivals hall with a bible in his left hand.
“I want to fight within this country and I will, until the very end, keep fighting for this country,” Mondlane said. “I’m not willing to accept election results if they are the same as those announced up until now.”
He had left the country in October following an election clouded by allegations of rigging against the long-ruling Frelimo party, which has been in power since Mozambique gained independence from Portugal in 1975.
More than 100 people have been killed by security forces, according to international rights groups, since Mozambique erupted in protests after Frelimo was declared the winner of the Oct. 9 election. Some local groups put the death toll at more than 200. Mondlane had called for people to protest the results.
Mondlane has said he left Mozambique fearing for his life after two senior members of his opposition party were killed in their car by unknown gunmen in a late-night shooting on a street in Maputo in the aftermath of the election. Mondlane's party called the killings political assassinations.
Police on Thursday also blocked roads leading to the airport after Mondlane said on social media earlier this week he would return to the southern African country. Tear gas drifted over the airport and surrounding roads and a helicopter hovered overhead. After arriving, Mondlane traveled by car to a public square in central Maputo, with large crowds following him.
Thousands of Mondlane's supporters were expected to gather in Maputo for his return, prompting the clampdown by security forces, which rights groups have accused of using excessive force against post-election protesters. Authorities have said the protests were violent and needed to be subdued, but rights groups say security forces have fired live bullets at peaceful protesters, and children were among those who were killed.
Mondlane accused authorities of kidnapping and killing some anti-government protesters. But he also said he was willing to enter into negotiations with Frelimo to end months of unrest, which has disrupted the country of 33 million. Mozambique has also been battling a violent insurgency by jihadists in the north.
“I’m here in flesh and blood to say that if you want to negotiate, if you want to talk to me, if you want to come to the conversation table, I’m here,” Mondlane said.
Mondlane and other opposition candidates accused Frelimo of rigging the election and international observers reported irregularities in the vote and the alteration of some results. Mozambique’s Constitutional Council upheld Frelimo’s victory last month, making its candidate, Daniel Chapo, the president-elect. He is due to be inaugurated next week to succeed President Filipe Nyusi, who has served the maximum two terms.
Mondlane was second in the official results.
The post-election unrest has spilled over to neighboring countries, with reports of thousands of Mozambicans fleeing to Malawi. South Africa closed its border with Mozambique for several days last year after vehicles were set on fire near the crossing.
The Southern African Development Community, a regional body, has said it will send a delegation to Mozambique in an attempt to find a solution to end the turmoil.
Frelimo has often been accused of rigging elections since Mozambique held its first democratic vote in 1994 following a bloody 15-year civil war Frelimo fought against rebel group Renamo, which is now an opposition party that Mondlane once belonged to before breaking away.
The street protests in several major cities since October have been the biggest threat to Frelimo's rule since the 1977-1992 civil war.
AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
FILE - Independent candidate Venancio Mondlane holds up his finger after casting his vote in general elections in Maputo, Mozambique, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Carlos Equeio, File)
