West Ham interested in Wagner

The Huddersfield Town manager, David Wagner, has emerged as a potential candidate for the West Ham United job if the club’s owners decide in the summer that Slaven Bilic is not the man to take them forward in the long term.

Wagner, 45 (right), a GermanAmerican coach who worked with Jürgen Klopp at Borussia Dortmund, has led Huddersfield to third place in the Championship and potentially their first promotion to the Premier League. He signed a new deal with the club last summer but there is a compensation clause in Wagner’s contract that would allow him to join a new club.

After three straight defeats in the Premier League, Bilic’s future remains uncertain as West Ham face a critical run of games, starting with Saturday’s trip to Hull City, who are currently in the relegation zone.

The club have withdrawn a plan to give their manager a new contract before the end of the season, which means that he would go into the last 12 months of his deal were he to stay beyond the summer.

While Wagner is not the kind of big-name manager whom West Ham have pursued in the past – in particular with Rafael Benítez – he is one of a number of young modern coaches who are expected to move on to bigger things. His style is similar to that of Klopp, with a heavy emphasis on the high intensity of his team’s approach and, as a consequence, the fitness of his players.