Can former Europa League winner replace Lopetegui at West Ham

Although Julen Lopetegui arrived at West Ham during the beginning of the summer transfer window, there are already rumours surrounding his exit from the London Stadium. With three consecutive home defeats in the Premier League and a massive 5-1 Carabao Cup defeat against Liverpool, uncertainty is looming over Lopetegui's managerial role at West Ham. Several managers such as former Chelsea manager Graham Potter are among the favourites to replace Julen Lopetegui, while the return of UEFA Conference League winner David Moyes for a third time at West Ham isn't ruled out as well. 

Moreover, West Ham were interested in bringing another former Chelsea manager as well, before signing Julen Lopetegui at the end of last season. West Ham considered former UEFA Europa League winning manager Maurizio Sarri as their David Moyes replacement, and could again try to convince the former Chelsea manager to return to the Premier League. After successfully guiding Serie A side Napoli to three consecutive seasons in the UEFA Champions League, Sarri decided to join Chelsea in 2018. 

Can former Europa League winner replace Lopetegui at West Ham

In his only season at Chelsea, Sarri led the Blues to a third place league finish securing UEFA Champions League qualification ahead of top Premier League sides such as Manchester United and Arsenal. Moreover, Sarri guided Chelsea to their second UEFA Europa League title with a massive 4-1 win against Unai Emery's Arsenal in the final. In the following season, Sarri returned to Serie A becoming the new Juventus manager and won the Italian league in the 2019/20 season.

Although Juventus were eliminated in the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League and decided to replace Sarri, the former Chelsea manager made Juventus as one of the best goalscoring sides in European football. While Sarri also focuses on a possession based tactical setup similar to Lopetegui, the Italian manager implements a quick build up play strategy in order to create more space for the forwards to score more goals. The Hammers have a lot of star forwards in their squad and thus, would form one of the best goalscoring front three in the Premier League under the management of Sarri.

Hence, West Ham should prefer to bring Sarri over other managerial candidates, in case Lopetegui couldn't bring good results consistently in the upcoming Premier League fixtures.