Julen Lopetegui has been appointed the new West Ham head coach. Lopetegui replaces David Moyes, who departed his role at the London Stadium “by mutual consent” after his contract expired at the end of the Premier League season.

The 57-year-old will work closely with technical director Tim Steidten – who will have more control over the recruitment. When Moyes was reappointed in 2019, it was under the proviso that he would have a big say in recruitment and transfers.

A statement on the club’s official website said: “West Ham is delighted to announce the appointment of Julen Lopetegui as the Club’s new men’s Head Coach. The former Spain, Porto, Real Madrid, Sevilla and Wolverhampton Wanderers coach will officially begin work with the Hammers on 1 July.”

Lopetegui is looking forward to starting work with the players upon their return to pre-season training in July and – speaking to West Ham TV – expressed his excitement at building on the strong foundations put in place and bringing his own style to London Stadium.

“I feel very happy, first of all, to be able to be part of the future of this big Club,” said Lopetegui. “We will try to put our stamp on the Club.

“I feel that we have a fantastic platform. I think the last few years have been very good years to have this base, of course, but my ambition as a coach is always to be better and better, to achieve more and bigger aims and to encourage and improve the players, the team, and to compete because football is about this – to compete. We are very ambitious about this.”