Julen Lopetegui suggests he never wanted West Ham in the first place.

An absolutely shambolic tenure saw Julen Lopetegui become the shortest reigning permanent manager the club has ever had. What exactly went so wrong is hard to pinpoint but on the pitch it looked like there was no real plan or system.

However, the one thing that could never be doubted was his commitment to the club, so it was thought, but his latest comments may suggest otherwise.

“Milan shows up and I’m very happy,” Lopetegui explained to La Gazette Dello Sport.

“It’s an historic and attractive team, and I’ve always liked the Italian league – I’ve always followed it, and was attracted by the way they understand football as a collective game.

“Arrigo [Sacchi] strongly encouraged my footballing curiosity. He inspired me. I studied him and I was lucky enough to get to know him.

“The negotiation progressed well, then stopped abruptly. It’s not up to me to reveal or comment on the reasons why they stopped.”

“The discussion with Serie A is not closed off,” he continued.

“Sooner or later I would like to come and honestly, I think I would be able to measure myself in what I consider to be a stimulating league from a tactical point of view.”

Clearly, this is a dig at West Ham, suggesting that he only ever wanted Milan.

He talks about how the Serie A would be a good league to measure himself in, but he’s only saying that because he was a catastrophic failure in the Premier League. Simply put, he’s not good enough to coach at the top, that’s why he didn’t do anything particularly remarkable with Spain or Real Madrid.