It has been a poor season once again for West Ham United fans around the globe, but with plenty of the Hammers faithful seeing what September appointment Nuno Espirito Santo was trying to do with the side – and appreciating it – our softly spoken 52 year old former Portuguese goalkeeper may have taken us to safety.
With the form and results that former gaffer Graham Potter left us with, Nuno had a big challenge on his hands and arguably it was not helped by the fact that he has his preferred style of play and the team were expected to largely pivot to his demands more immediately.
For those fans who use a PIA vpn dedicated ip for their streaming needs, they would have seen good signs of that playing ethos coming through within a few games as the first team squad probably came around and adjusted quicker than many at the London Stadium felt they would – but positive and more consistent results obviously took longer.
With the business end of the 2025/26 Premier League campaign now definitely with us as April nears, Nuno’s record reads eight win and nine draws with only eleven defeats, and from a top flight perspective that sees us on joint points with 17th place (outside of the relegation zone) with slightly better form over the last five games than those above us that we want to replace.
This weekends clash with Unai Emery’s inconsistent Aston Villa side will not decide anything, but it could prove to be a major and telling boost to our chances when we look back in a month or two.
Whilst results rightly take precedence right now, if the summer transfer window rumour mill is to be believed, plans are already being drawn up for our future business dealings as the manager looks to a full season in charge. It seems that Chelsea loanee Axel Disasi may have a longer future here as well as Nuno has been impressed and is reportedly instructing the board to ensure that they snap him up for the campaign to come.
The biggest issue surrounding the future of the 28 year old French centre half is that his ridiculously spending parent club are apparently hoping to hold out for a £38 million fee and we are unlikely to match that and would require them to be open to being sensibly negotiated down somewhat and taking a hit on their initial 2023 outlay.
Of course, this is all predicated on the fact that we retain our Premier League status for the coming 2026/27 season as financially a deal would absolutely be off the table, and Disasi himself would have other top flight suitors and would unlikely be willing to drop a level even though he knows he has long been wildly out of favour at Stamford Bridge.
For now there are obviously bigger things for fans to concern themselves with, and Nuno will certainly be primarily focused on the games to come and not the summer, but it is worth fans keeping this speculation at the backs of their heads as when survival is mathematically guaranteed (hopefully) this is one story that will be back in the headlines.
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