Potter responds to viral face-swaps as West Ham face Everton

West Ham United manager Graham Potter acknowledged he has seen the wave of memes that place his face on a range of public figures and fictional characters, including Sydney Sweeney, Donald Trump and the Chuckle Brothers. He said the memes have been a source of amusement for his 15-year-old son and that, in the dizzying world of modern football, such attention comes with the territory.

"Yes, I am aware of the trend," Potter told reporters ahead of Monday’s trip to Merseyside to face Everton at Hill Dickinson Stadium. "It made my 15-year-old son laugh a lot, so you have to accept what comes with it. It comes with criticism, it comes with ridicule but that's just the environment we're in and it is what it is." He added that he has no favourite meme and that there are more important things to concentrate on than social media chatter, though he acknowledged the noise is part of the job.

The memes have circulated widely on X and other social platforms, featuring Potter swapped into the bodies of Hollywood stars and political figures, including Sydney Sweeney, Donald Trump and the Chuckle Brothers. Some posts also show him as Barbie or Ken from the 2023 film, and another popular edit places Potter in the seat of the hosts of Ellen DeGeneres' famous Oscars group selfie from 2014. One clip, using AI to swap Trump’s face into an interview in which he brags about making money, has Potter mocked as if he is Trump’s counterpart in a pay-day joke. Ampika Pickston, club co-owner Daniel Sullivan’s fiancée, has also been a target of several distorted images.

The light-hearted memes come as Potter navigates a difficult run of results. West Ham have won just one game this season and head to Merseyside to face Everton on Monday night. The online poking at his image has not gone unnoticed inside the club, but Potter said it does not affect him personally.

"It doesn’t affect me. I don’t listen to that. It’s your job, and other people’s jobs, to create speculation and it’s part of the noise of the Premier League; it’s what you sign up for," he said. "So if results aren’t good, which they haven’t been and no one is shying away from that, the results aren’t what we want, then there’s always speculation. There’s always noise, there’s always negativity, and there’s nothing to complain about from my perspective."

Regarding his ongoing talks with West Ham’s hierarchy, Potter was careful to strike a balance between realism and optimism. "We’ve had positive talks but we all understand where we are at and we want to improve. As I said before, no one is happy with where we are at, but at the same time you have to look at the context and the situation and not get caught up in the noise," he said, signaling a willingness to confront the team’s struggles with a pragmatic plan rather than sulking at social media.