Julen Lopetegui has been fired by West Ham after less than a year in the job and with the Premier League club in danger of being dragged into a relegation fight.

The first sign that Tim Steidten would become a behind-the-scenes figure of outsized public persona came when West Ham’s technical director - in what must be a first for the genre - became the subject of a terrace belter.

There will be no more bubbles blown for Julen Lopetegui at West Ham, who fired the Spanish coach on Wednesday and announced Graham Potter as his replacement. Potter has signed a two-and-a-half-year contract and was unveiled as the club’s new manager at a press conference on Thursday.