West Ham: Graham Potter on ‘building something’ at club and why big spending is not always a positive

West Ham United face newly promoted Sunderland in the Premier League on Saturday, with manager Graham Potter determined that any improvements this season should emerge from solid foundations.

Potter felt he inherited a mess at the London Stadium when he was brought in to replace Julen Lopetegui in January.

While he could identify what was wrong, the 50-year-old could not start fixing the issues properly until this summer.

That meant he oversaw just one victory in his first six games and a run of eight without a win, before an end of season rally took West Ham up to 14th.

It represented a fairly underwhelming introduction to life at London Stadium for Potter on his return to the game, 21 months after being sacked by Chelsea.

Given new signings have been slow to arrive, it is easy to imagine the likes of Antonio Conte or Jose Mourinho reacting to the same scenario by furiously demanding more bodies, no matter the cost.

But that is not Potter’s way.

He can lose his cool – and he did in Chicago last month, with Potter fiercely criticising the decision to have cooling breaks when West Ham beat Everton on a cold, wet and windy night during the Premier League Summer Series.

But Potter prefers to address issues in a more measured, methodical way.

“The coach’s job is to build something,” he said.

“You’ve got to try and improve your team, improve the club, improve the players. That’s the trick.

“I don’t know what the perception of me is to be honest. I can have my water-break tirade with the best of them.

“But everybody’s different, I suppose. I’ve always tried to do what I think is the right thing for the club.

“At the end of the day, West Ham is the most important thing. I’m an employee.”