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.

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.

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.