West Ham United boss Julen Lopetegui may have inadvertently started a war of words, over the state of Spanish refereeing.
That’s at least if the latest from Cadena SER is anything to go by, with Spanish referee Iturralde González biting back at the West Ham boss today.
Lopetegui was interviewed by Cadena last week, discussing various topics about West Ham and the English game.
During that interview he was pushed to give an answer on how he thinks the Premier League is different from La Liga. One of his answers was about how referees are different, with the Hammers boss explaining how refs in England are more lenient than their Spanish counterparts.
This was something he felt led to very contrasting styles with him adding that English refs allow for a more transition-based game and counter-attacking situations.
The comments were largely harmless and presumably not intended to cause offence and have gone unnoticed for over a week.
That is until Cadena SER decided to play them for Spanish referee Iturralde González today, leading to him biting back at the West Ham boss with his own statements.
“It’s a very simplistic analysis,” he said.
“What do we want? Do we want the English refereeing that caused Pedri to still be looking for his knee after Kroos’ tackle? Or that of the current president of the English CTA, Howard Webb, when Xabi Alonso is still looking for his chest? Is that the continuity we want?
“Do we want players to face this type of refereeing when England is the country in which the most injuries occur due to tackles? Do we want that?
“And I say to him: Do you plan the games the same way you did at Sevilla?”
