There are very few excuses left for Julen Lopetegui’s woeful start to life as West Ham manager.

Patience is wearing thin amongst West Ham fans and, according to reports, the board are not far behind.

While sitting in 14th is bad enough, it’s the performances which has pushed fans over the edge. However, James Jones explained to the BBC that there are some excuses for this awful start.

“Previously I have accepted that we are in a transitional season, with many factors at play that would make a difficult start to the season understandable; a new manager, a new style of play, nine new players to be integrated and a new club captain,” he stated

“There has been a lot of change, so I was accepting of the fact things were not really going the way we hoped they would. I was still hopeful that things would eventually improve if Lopetegui was given time and space to get on with the job at hand.”

Nonetheless, Jones is starting to feel like perhaps these weren’t teething problems and perhaps there was a wider issue.  “He keeps calling for consistency but fails to remain consistent in his team selection or tactics.”

“On top of that, the players seem to be really frustrated with it. We have had three red cards already this season, all of them coming from players either losing their heads out of frustration or making stupid, avoidable tackles.”

Ultimately, he claims it’s “probably still too early” to make a decision on his future, but is willing to concede that the moment is fast approaching.