West Ham United have expressed their interest in appointing former Porto coach Sérgio Conceição as Julen Lopetegui’s replacement.
That’s according to O Jogo, who say the Portuguese coach has ‘no shortage of suitors’ and West Ham United are one of them.
The newspaper reports that while Nantes, Conceição’s former club, are eyeing the 50-year-old up as a replacement for Antoine Kombouaré, West Ham have also ‘expressed interest’ in him.
A change of coach at the London Stadium could be on the cards ‘in the short term’, with the 3-1 defeat to Leicester on Tuesday evening adding more pressure to the situation around Lopetegui.
West Ham have already expressed their interest in Conceição as a result and there is a ‘serious possibility’ he ends up working in the Premier League.
Mais Futebol add their information to this, reporting that Conceição is holding Nantes at arm’s length as he wants to manage in a ‘higher league’ than Ligue 1. He knows clubs like West Ham and RB Leipzig could be close to changing managers and a ‘strong hypothesis’ for him in the near future.
Thus, he would prefer to wait, see what offers are available to him and asses his opportunities from there as he looks for his first job post Porto.
Mais Futebol commentator Maniche wants to pour cold on the idea, though, insisting he believes Conceição has his sights set higher than West Ham.
“I have a hard time believing that Sérgio Conceição will accept a club like West Ham, which is in 14th place, with 6 points from the penultimate place, or Nantes, which has 11 points and is in the penultimate place in Ligue 1,” he said.
“I don’t know the goals that Sérgio Conceição has for his career, but what is certain is that after what he won in Porto, obviously I presume that he is thinking about a team that fights for titles and not for teams that are fighting for division.
“Now, this also depends a lot on what the coach wants for his career, if he thinks he’s been standing still for a long time without training, if he can’t be without training, it also depends a lot on the person, what he wants for his career, his goals.
“Now, obviously, I think that Sérgio Conceição has already had other clubs, even from other leagues, also with a financial level probably better than these two clubs.
“What is certain is what I said, it depends a lot on what Sérgio Conceição wants for his career, continue to win titles like he won in Porto, or save teams that are fighting to stay in a division.”
