KARREN BRADY has backed under-fire boss Graham Potter to succeed following West Ham’s worst opening-day display for six years.
And football’s leading female figure says influential Brazilian playmaker Lucas Paqueta WILL stay beyond this transfer window.
The Hammers vice-chair has defended chief Potter after the woeful 3-0 defeat at newly-promoted Sunderland on Saturday.
Potter, 50, has had lots of criticism since arriving at the London Stadium to replace Julen Lopetegui in January, losing 10 of his 20 matches across all competitions.
Yet Brady, 56, insists the club board do not “panic” over bad results but are expecting a “reaction” during Friday’s Premier League home tie with Chelsea.
Brady told the talkSPORT Sunday Edition: “I wish yesterday could start all over again. I mean it’s so tough to take.
“It’s never easy for the supporters, the players, the manager, to lose 3-0, particularly in the opening game of the season.
“Look, I spent a lot of time with the manager and the squad in America on the pre-season tour.
“The spirit amongst 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.
“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 the players respect him.
“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.”
Last month, Paqueta, 27, was cleared by an independent regulatory commission following a two-year FA investigation into allegations of spot-fixing.
The South American midfielder – who has two years left on his current deal – was facing limbo if he had been found guilty of the charges.
He was linked to Manchester City before the probe began but the club has no desire to sell him, seeing him as a key player this campaign.
Brady said: “I think he wants to stay and we definitely want him to stay, so the thing is he will be staying.
“Look, it’s been a really tough time for Lucas.
“It’s such a serious allegation and it was really hanging over him. The FA were going for a worldwide lifetime ban. So the seriousness of the situation was incredible.
“He was from day one when the accusation was made absolutely resolute in the fact that he had nothing to do with this. There was no evidence that he had anything to do with it.
“So it came as a real relief. We always took the view that we’d completely believe in him. We stood right the way alongside him through the whole scenario.”
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