Nuno Espírito Santo looks set to depart West Ham any day rather than play any part in the campaign to return the Hammers to the Premier League. Now that the season is over and the hugely disappointing outcome confirmed, insiders have been lifting the lid on Nuno’s regime. It does not make for comfortable reading.
Neither will it inspire other Premier League Chairmen or Sporting directors to leap in for the Portuguese manager whose tenure at West Ham is forensically examined in the NY Times, thanks to their ‘sources’ in the dressing room. In truth, these revelations go a long way in explaining the erratic performances of the team.
“Many believed the team better prepared under Graham Potter”
Dressing room bust-ups with Callum Wilson, James Ward Prowse and latterly Jean Clair Todibo illustrate a man for whom there was only lip service paid to modern man management techniques.
Todibo and Wilson – both fell out with the Hammers head coach according to the NY Times
Espirito Santo’s training style comes in for particular scrutiny in the NYTimes:
“In the first two months of Nuno’s reign, concerns grew among the players about the lack of tactical preparation for games. Nuno was not hands-on in training, with responsibilities instead delegated to Robson, Potts and Prenderville.
Despite the struggles under Potter, many believed the team prepared better for matches under him when it came to video analysis and tactical team meetings.”
And incredibly, even at half time in some matches, Nuno refused to speak with his players:
“Wilson is not the only person that Nuno fell out with at the start of the year.
He often chose not to speak to the players during half-time and after games. At the interval against Wolves, Robson attempted to give the players a rollicking because of the poor performance. Nuno told his assistant coach to sit down and there was a heated exchange.”
Amidst it all Nuno continued as the highest paid manager in West Ham history, despite the dressing room disconnect which was contributing to dragging the Hammers towards the Championship.
David Sullivan’s third managerial pick turned out to be every bit as unsuccessful as Potter and Lopetegui before him and, if Roshane Thomas’ report is correct, proved even more inept at team building and man management. No wonder the January arrival of first team coach Paco Jemez had such an impact.
Feel for the players who had to endure four coaching styles inside two years – is it any wonder that the club slid to the foot of the table.
The worst part of this ‘reveal’ ? The same person who appointed the hapless trio of ‘calamity coaches’ gets to do it all over again in the next few days. Surely he has to get a managerial appointment right soon, if only on the balance of probability.
If there is any truth in this, then someone needs to ask Bowen and the rest if they have all been neutered. Certainly Bowen carries a lot of weight in that club and if he had stood up and called Nuno out, things would have come to a head sooner, rather than going out with a pathetic whimper as they did. Alternatively, if he felt Nuno was doing a good job, it was Bowen’s job to stand up and speak out. They are gutless, but they can start to put things right by using their collective bargaining power to get Sullivan out. The fans can do their bit by boycotting all home games rather than supporting Sullivan.
More BS, straight from the Sully playbook.
I actually like Nuno as manager. Definitely seems like some kind of agenda, to blame the manager. If we do indeed sack Nuno, certain players need to hang their heads in shame. From the captain down we have been poor all season.
Nuno was on par with Potter until Paco came in and sorted the defence out, having said that I think his right about Todibo his never a centre half, doesn’t like to head the ball, lazy getting back… JWP might do it in the Championship next season provided we can get a couple centre backs with some physical presence and aerial dominance.
Spot on! .. A million reasons why we went down, some stretching back years .. One simple thing would’ve had us safe .. In a time when corners and set pieces are in vogue, we entered August with 3 CBs on the books that can’t and won’t head a football .. I saw a stat on Sky that said no team in PL history had conceded more than 3 goals from corners by the end of October .. To put that in context, Varsenal a.k.a. Set Piece FC recently went 60 corners without scoring .. 659 teams in PL history conceded 3 or less from corners by the end of October and 1 team, us, conceded 9!!! .. Add to that goals conceded from bog standard crosses (2 from way out wide in the first game) .. Beats me how fans can spot things that so-called football professionals, paid millions, can’t .. Nuno dumped Kilman and Todibo, brought in Disasi and paired him with Mavro – Problem largely solved and massive improvement .. Potter and his recruitment team – gross negligence ..
Starting your sentence with “to be fair” indicates support rather than criticism. And,are you privy to the contact Moyes was offered? How do you know it was “an insulting new contract”?
shouldn’t we appoint a director of football and he picks the manager?
Is that you Sullivan?
Yep, see the increased importance of Jemez now and why players often referred to him; must have been a breath of fresh air for the team.
Can’t believe the standard of management. Potter with his gooky talk and NES who does not talk at all and insists on doing it his way, to the detriment of the team (losing 15+ league points), to the point Jemez loses it with him.
PL money is attracting some real prima donnas and weirdos.
Sullivan is shocking at appointing managers – remember it was he who appointed avram grant
However I find these dressing room disclosures leave a bad taste – maybe I am just old fashioned
As club captain Bowen should of addressed that problem with the Manager if not then go over his head and point out to those in charge that there was a problem and unless it is sorted out then the playing side was in trouble……As fans we all saw it and i am sure there had to be whispers in the “workplace” same as anywhere else but for no action no conversation to be had shows how rotten a structure and unprofessionalism that runs through the club…..Managers have favourites it is true but to cut your nose of because of an argument with certain players at the cost of the clubs tenure in the Premier league is childish..Egos do not run successful businesses or football clubs and sadly we have an Egotistical owner who will not accept that not once twice but three times in a row the wrong man has put into the managers job and now we are reaping what we have sowed.
Sullivan does things on the cheap,He will be looking at someone out of a job…like Scott Parker who may steer us out of the Championship but what then. Again typical of Sullivan is that there is no long term plan, reaction rather than action. Early days as the reality settles in,it’ll be interesting that’s for sure.
To be fair Sullivan hasn’t done well with many of his manager picks. He got lucky with Moyes, but even then let him go after six months, before getting a second chance. Then Sullivan “rewarded” Moyes with an insulting new contract in recognition of his consistency and success, to ensure he would leave as soon as he could