By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
News that West Ham midfielder Soungoutou Magassa has had a change of heart and recommitted to the Hammers’ project has one major flaw as far as I can see it… Nuno Espírito Santo.
As Claret and Hugh covered earlier this morning, the young French midfielder has supposedly apologised to his teammates and the manager following his attempts to leave the football club.
That all sounds hunky-dory in theory. Magassa stays, apologises and potentially becomes the defensive midfielder West Ham could badly use.
The problem is that, from what I can tell so far, the Hammers gaffer is not the most forgiving of managers.
Magassa’s West Ham Hissy Fit
Magassa had what can only be described as something of a hissy fit and a temper tantrum, deleting any remnants of West Ham from his social media feeds and liking and endorsing players who were moving away from the club.
The inference was clear: ‘I do not wish to be here and I endorse anybody who wants to leave’.
This all coincided with Espírito Santo supposedly telling Magassa at the beginning of the summer that he would get his chance, but he was not guaranteed a first-team place, which is fair enough as far as I’m concerned.
The £20million signing from Monaco 12 months ago readied his agent to find him a move away from East London, but to West Ham’s credit, they rejected every offer made for the promising midfielder.
Now comes the opportunity for reintegration.
But Nuno has some previous here.
Soungoutou Magassa faces an uncertain West Ham future despite reportedly apologising and asking to rejoin Nuno Espírito Santo’s squad.
Nuno Doesn’t Appear To Forget Easily
The most obvious recent example is James Ward-Prowse, who found himself moved off to Southampton despite being one of West Ham’s best players in pre-season.
In isolation, that particular example doesn’t look that bad at all.
But Ward-Prowse had previously fallen out with Espírito Santo during their time together at Nottingham Forest, supposedly referring to Nuno as “baldie”.
How much of that is true we’ll never know, but it’s a good story.
What was clear was that Espírito Santo was in no mood to revive Ward-Prowse’s West Ham career.
Then you have Niclas Füllkrug.
The German striker made it clear he did not want to play for West Ham soon after Nuno arrived last season and made it very evident to his new manager that he’d be leaving in January.
That’s exactly what happened, with Füllkrug moving to AC Milan.
However, following a crappy showing in Serie A, Füllkrug returned to East London with his tail firmly between his legs looking for another chance.
Nuno didn’t give him a sniff.
Todibo Provides Another Warning
Then we get on to Jean-Clair Todibo, surely a player Espírito Santo could have used during West Ham’s opening games this season.
But the pair had a falling out at the end of last season and never buried the hatchet.
That in itself was quite telling because when Nuno arrived, Todibo was reinstated into the team following his falling out with Graham Potter.
Up until his dismissal in the away game against Chelsea, Todibo was arguably Nuno’s best performer.
Yet once his relationship with Espírito Santo deteriorated, there appeared to be no way back.
It’s another example suggesting that if you get on the wrong side of West Ham’s head coach, forgiveness might be difficult to come by.
Todibo looks miserable on the West Ham substitutes bench
Can Nuno Forgive Magassa?
And that, as far as I can see, may well be the biggest problem for Magassa.
With Edson Álvarez still agitating for a move away from the football club, Magassa is probably West Ham’s best option to play as a No.6 in terms of experience.
We’ve already looked at how Nuno’s treatment of Lewis Orford has raised questions, and reintegrating Magassa would give the manager yet another midfield decision to make.
There is little doubt in my mind that West Ham’s squad is stronger with Magassa available.
The question is whether Nuno sees it the same way.
Magassa has apparently swallowed his pride, apologised and asked for another opportunity.
Now we’ll find out whether Nuno Espírito Santo is prepared to give him one.
In the circumstances (if accurately reported) he should be given a second chance. I hope that Nuno is big enough to do so. Generally, everyone deserves a second chance after making an apology.
Nuno needs to wipe the slate clean. If we are serious about promotion he needs harmony in the squad. Building that is an important part of his job, not holding grudges and promoting resentment! Your record is far from perfect Nuno, so give the players a break! You need a squad that appreciates and respects each other!
I agree, Dave. We could end up with many players wanting out come the end of the season. That isn’t progression. It’ll be worse than the relegation we suffered as we won’t have the top players to sell just to balance the books. Plus: What would we be left with? A team fit for League 1.
What you say is very true apart from the fact Nuno never even used him in pre season.
This to me suggests there is more to this than just a hissy fit.
Regardless of whether Nuno is a great manager or a diabolical one he clearly has man management issues. He could have off killed off the Orford questions when asked, but choose to avoid it now making a rod for his own back. Outside of his relationship with his players I think he always comes across badly in press conferences and doesn’t inspire any confidence he actually knows what he is doing. If the short term turnaround in West Ham’s fortunes last season really was down to Paco – a manager with a pretty uninspiring track record mainly in lower leagues for obscure teams that doesn’t say much about Nuno does it?
Personally i would rather see the player gone….to many players think they are something special and lets face facts as should the player and that is they were as good as they think they are they would not be here they would be at a Chelski an Arsenal B.Munich etc…..their is an old song by the special called “To much to young” and a lot of young footballers think they are the dogs without putting in the hard work and from what little i have seen of this Lad give me Soucek any day of the week and twice on Sundays over him.
Too, two, or to? Them 2 letter and three letter words are the hardest 🤣
Or perhaps we should be glad we have a manager who does not put up with too much nonsense from players who cost a fortune and don’t deliver on the pitch. We spent over £100m on the 4 you mention Gonzo and except for JWP they threw their gold dummies out of the pram when they didn’t get picked. Glad Magassa is staying as like you say we need him and I hope and expect Orford to return soon. We had a great win this week and I think it’s important we build on the positive vibe.
You missed one very important point none of the rest of them apologised and ask for a second chance or did you leave that out on purpose.
I also think we are stronger with him , he is young and apologised . I hope Nuno gives him another chance he can make a difference.
Not in terms of football style but in terms of man management BFS was very good – apparently Mo Diame gave an interview saying he wanted to play for a top sux club- when asked about it BFS smiled and said “in that case he should start playing a lot better” – but kept him in the team for the next game