Brady set to back Potter despite West Ham’s horror start to new season

West Ham vice-chair Karren Brady has insisted the club “won’t panic” after a poor start to the Premier League campaign, with manager Graham Potter set to be given the chance to steady the ship.

The Hammers suffered a 3-0 loss away to newly promoted Sunderland on Saturday, continuing a mixed run of results under Potter since his arrival in January.

The ex-Brighton and Chelsea boss has overseen 20 matches so far, recording five wins, five draws and ten defeats after stepping in for Julen Lopetegui midway through last season.

Following the setback at the Stadium of Light, some frustrated supporters voiced fears of a relegation struggle and called for a managerial change.

But Brady made it clear on Talksport that the 50-year-old retains the club’s full backing:

“Graham is a forward-thinking manager. He’s sort of calm under pressure, he’s very detailed in his approach, he’s a great man-manager of players.

“He builds a special relationship with players and they understand where he’s coming from.

“He has a modern mindset and all of those things mean it does take some time to put a team together, to get the team playing the way that you want.

“West Ham is not a club that panics about its managers. We tend to stick with them, tend to support people, stick with them and see it through.

“I really hope he does well. He’s a pleasure to work with, he’s incredibly professional.

“I know his relationship with the players is good. I know he’ll be sitting down with them today to have a long, hard think about what went wrong yesterday, expecting a reaction and expecting to put it right.”

Nightmare in the North-East

Potter handed debuts to several summer arrivals, including £19m signing El Hadji Malick Diouf from Slavia Prague and Denmark goalkeeper Mads Hermansen, who joined from Leicester for £20m.

New striker Callum Wilson also featured from the bench after his switch from Newcastle, while fellow recruit Kyle Walker-Peters was an unused substitute.

However, the squad still lacks a replacement for Mohammed Kudus, who departed for Tottenham in a £55m deal.

West Ham started brightly, with chances for Jarrod Bowen and Diouf, but once Sunderland’s Eliezer Mayenda broke the deadlock on 61 minutes, the visitors collapsed. Two more goals followed in the final stages to seal a sobering defeat.

Reflecting on the result, Brady admitted: “I wish yesterday could start all over again. It’s so tough to take. It’s never easy for the supporters, the players, or the manager to lose 3-0, particularly in the opening game of the season.

“I spent a lot of time with the manager and the squad in America on the pre-season tour.

“The spirit among them is fantastic. I know that they’ll be more disappointed, that they’ll be the most disappointed people this morning.

“I know we’ll see a reaction and I know they want to turn it around and they’ll want to turn it around quickly.”