West Ham’s handling of David Moyes’ exit has been grubby and unpleasant… the Hammers should be careful with hiring Julen Lopetegui given his track record, writes OLIVER HOLT

Julen Lopetegui, it appears, is not a signatory to the quaint football convention that you do not discuss taking a job while another manager is in that job. He is not the first to trample over that behavioural nicety. And he won’t be the last.

Lopetegui, though, has managed to take things a step further: his friends in the media reported he had agreed to become West Ham’s new manager on Monday morning long before the club made a hasty announcement in the evening that David Moyes, the club’s most successful manager for decades, would leave at the end of the season.

‘The recruitment process for David’s successor has begun,’ the official West Ham statement said. What it could have said was: ‘The recruitment process for David’s successor has ended.’ But that might have been a bit too close to the truth.

The club’s board is fortunate indeed that Moyes chose to depart with only generous words of farewell. It was a lot more than they deserved. It feels very much as if Lopetegui’s tenure is being born under a bad sign. That is hardly unusual for the way West Ham conduct their business. Some might say that Lopetegui and the West Ham owner David Sullivan deserve each other.

‘Show some class, West Ham,’ the former England defender Stephen Warnock had said yesterday morning as more of the unpalatable details of Moyes’ treatment began to emerge. There was never much chance of that, I’m afraid.

Class is not the first word that springs to mind with either Sullivan or Lopetegui, sadly, but maybe the former porn baron has found the boss he has always yearned for. Perhaps this will be a beautiful union of kindred spirits. 

Eighteen months later, in December 2019, West Ham had to go back to Moyes to ask him to clean up the mess that Pellegrini had made. Moyes did that and much more. It was only 11 months ago that West Ham won their first European trophy for 58 years when they lifted the Europa Conference League final in Prague.

That victory made Moyes the only British manager since Sir Alex Ferguson to win a European trophy. He led West Ham to sixth place in the Premier League in 2020-21 and seventh place in 2021-22. They got to the quarter-finals of the Europa Conference League this season before losing – as everyone does – to Bayer Leverkusen.

But that’s not good enough, apparently. Many supporters clearly feel it is time for a change and many more point to recent results to back up that feeling, not least the recent drubbings West Ham have suffered at the hands of Chelsea and Crystal Palace.

It seems pertinent to point out that, for all the criticism aimed at Moyes and his style of play, West Ham are two points ahead of Brighton & Hove Albion, managed by everyone’s favourite boss, Roberto De Zerbi. So Moyes must still be doing something right.

Funnily enough, things seem to have fallen away a bit for him since it became an open secret that the club was approaching other managers to take over at the end of the season when Moyes was still talking about his hopes of remaining at the club and signing a new deal.

What sort of a way is that to treat a manager like Moyes? Yes, of course we have to accept there will be an element of realpolitik in the appointment of a new manager. Clubs have to plan for the future. But West Ham should have told Moyes they had decided to move on with someone else. They should have been straight with him. When they finally got around to it last night, the damage had been done.

By then, they had subjected him to the low-grade humiliation of their open and awkward courtship dances with potential replacements such as Sporting Lisbon manager Ruben Amorim and Lopetegui. That prompted criticism from club legends such as Tony Cottee and Frank McAvennie. Moyes, and the club’s supporters, deserved a lot, lot better.

It was a sign of just how much rancour the club’s approach was causing that technical director Tim Steidten, who was leading the search for a successor while Moyes was still talking about signing a new contract at the end of the season, had to be banned from entering the dressing room for the remainder of the campaign.

It could easily be argued that Sullivan – and the club’s hierarchy – have cost West Ham a place in European competition next season by the way they have undermined Moyes’ authority in the last month. They pulled the rug out from under him.

Still, a tribute is being planned for Moyes before his last home game at the London Stadium against Luton on Saturday. That fans will give him a warm reception because for all their recent opposition, they know what Moyes has done for the club. Maybe Sullivan will get into the spirit of it and give him a tin tack for a leaving present.

My run for Roger 

You have undoubtedly read enough about me running a long distance very slowly in the past couple of weeks. On Monday, I ran a short distance very slowly instead. 

This time, it was at a brilliant mass participation event in Oxford to mark the 70th anniversary of Sir Roger Bannister running the first sub-four-minute mile at the Iffley Road track. I was lucky enough to interview Sir Roger a few years before he died and talk to a man who achieved one of the great landmarks in modern sport. 

The run on Monday morning finished at the Iffley Road track and as we walked around it, I remembered that Sir Roger had said he only decided to race that day in 1954 when he looked at the flag on the spire of St John the Evangelist Church in the distance and saw that the wind was blowing in a favourable direction. 

The church is still there. The flag is still there. It was still blowing in the wind.

Never underestimate the power of sport 

The wonderful thing about sport is that it gives you drama at whatever level you watch it. On Saturday morning, before I drove up to watch Manchester City-Wolves, I stopped in to see the second half of a local Under 16s girls’ league title-deciding match in which my mate’s daughter was playing. 

Charlotte’s team was 2-1 down and she was generally being marked out of the game by a rather intimidating and generally accomplished right back. With 15 minutes left, Charlotte nicked the ball away from her nemesis near the touchline, advanced a few yards and chipped the ball over the goalkeeper. Cue pandemonium. 

A few minutes later, her team scored again and the title was won. I saw Erling Haaland hit four later that day and was filled with wonder at his power and his athleticism and his skill but it’s Charlotte’s goal that will live longest in my memory.