Earlier today, I was asked a very honest question by a heartbroken West Ham fan who clearly still held some hope that the club could be repaired under its current construct.
With Andoni Iraola and Marco Silva both likely to be available in the summer, I was asked whether there was any chance they would take the job if West Ham somehow stayed up this season.
It was a sad question for two reasons. Firstly, because of the hope that our beloved club might remain in the Premier League. But secondly, because there was still a lingering belief that if the Hammers could just survive this one season, everything would somehow be okay.
The first part of the question I left unanswered. After all, who am I to burst that bubble while it remains mathematically possible for West Ham to stay up?
The Reputation Problem No One Can Ignore
The second part, however, needed addressing. And on that score, I’m afraid the game is well and truly up.
West Ham are viewed as broken. While we, as fans, might be looking at Nuno Espírito Santo and questioning why he does not play a striker or why he shuffles his starting line-up so often, those outside the London Stadium see things very differently. In football circles, there is no illusion — this is not Nuno’s fault. West Ham are simply unmanageable.
There was a brief period after David Moyes left for the second time when the perception still existed that success could be achieved here. That perception has now vanished. Speak to former managers, players, or agents and the feedback is the same: the club is not good enough behind the scenes.
Kyle Macaulay’s treatment by West Ham has been noted
The Word is Out, West Ham are Broken
The word is out on the football grapevine. West Ham is viewed as a poisoned chalice. The uncomfortable truth is that neither Iraola nor Silva would touch the job because it would be bad for their careers. Yes, there will always be someone in the last-chance saloon desperate enough to take it on — but an aspiring, upwardly mobile manager? Forget it.
Nuno, ironically, is in something of a privileged position. Whatever happens during his time in charge will not significantly damage his future prospects. Relegation would look poor on his CV, of course, but the wider football world believes he is completely handicapped by the club’s structure.
The Worst of All Worlds
Make no mistake, the recent debacles involving Kyle Macaulay and Tim Steidten have not gone unnoticed. West Ham have shown they neither want a proper director of football model nor are they willing to give the manager genuine control of recruitment.
Instead, there appears to be an awkward middle ground where David Sullivan runs the rule over transfers. That setup is deeply unattractive to modern managers and head coaches alike. As the dismissals of Newman, Steidten and Macaulay demonstrate, even when senior figures are appointed, stability does not follow.
Macaulay is now head scout at Manchester United, who were more than happy to pick him up for free less than a year after West Ham paid £1m compensation for his services. This kind of upper-management chaos simply does not exist elsewhere.
Old Sullivan and Brady allies in football have largely disappeared, replaced by a new, mostly overseas, ownership class that neither identifies with nor practices West Ham’s outdated style of governance.
And it is for that very reason that if Nuno fails to win either of his next two games, his likely replacement will be Slaven Bilić. Much as we all love Slav, he is no longer hot property — and crucially, he knows the job and the people involved.
As for Nuno? I suspect he will be in a far better job than the West Ham hot seat within the next 12 months
You may be right Gonzo, but surely of bigger concern is what’s happening on the pitch? Poor recruitment coupled with an inane ability to turn potential into trash suggests the owners are not the sole reason we find ourselves in this position. Good players arrive at west Ham and consistently fail to blossom. We haven’t developed youth into Premier League standard forever (with one exception who we sold for less than his worth) and we seem intent to want to play without the ball when we haven’t the legs to press. That isn’t all down to the owners. Players and managers letting us down too. And us fans have turned the LS into a library so we’re as bad. Time we support West Ham again.
We’ve been here before, but it is true that our recruitment and finances are not up to making you feel optimistic. Do think we have a lot of good young talent in the Academy and 1st team fringes who will develop quickly and it is worth planning for the championship now, by using youngsters sometimes to finish games in order to gain experience, or be tested. Perhaps NES feels he has done this enough already and knows who stays, who goes on loan and who can leave?
Hope NES stays till end of season, but I am uncomfortable with his “my way and no other way” approach to managing as well as tactics, which is why I can see the value of a professional football director who has a say on who stays or comes in because he would look at the here and now, as well as consider longer term club development.
I do wonder whether Kretinsky would use a drop to the Championship and lower costs as an occasion to become a majority stakeholder – blimey, those bubbles are flying high today.
I would agree with some of what has been said but, manager recruitment has been poor. None of the previous 3 managers has improved there win ratio at their present clubs.
Depressing but true Gonzo. I watched Cov v Ips last night and part of me was excited that we could see the majority of our U21s playing some exciting football in a super competitive league. None of us want that, but I always look at the positives in any situation, and if it comes to that then this is the best outlook I can find. Whether we can get shot of the barnacles who run the club is another matter.
I think that if we fail to win any of our next 3 league games (Brighton, Wolves, Forest) then Nuno will be gone (with a win percentage dropping to just above 10%)
I am not sure that we will then be better off – three managers in a season is almost certain relegation
So there you go Nuno – for all of our sake just go out there and win some games
COYI
If billic comes in mate we are truly finished as a top tier club
Sacked by West Brom and Watford, but good enough for West Ham.
About right Mick !
Alas, Gonzo, I think you are horribly right. We are broken; the club is rotten, there’s no longer a heart, or depth, or strong roots to the structure. It is hard to see any manager with a care for his career coming to us. Why would they? No structure, no real plan – and no competence at the highest levels. If Slav does take over, it would be a disaster. He is as much from and of the past as Our Glorious Leader. Have people forgotten how he actually inherited a decent defence – and then oversaw it turning into a paper boat in a rough sea? I watched that decay from afar, and despaired.
I’ve been following since 63, and have seen so many dark days, bleak periods (punctuated by delighted joy); but I have never felt so numb, so utterly devoid of hope as now. It is hard to see us escaping the drop; and if we do go down, it is even harder to see us coming back any time soon; the Championship has moved on, too, and our structure, the way our club is run, the attitudes at the top, are from a past era, a time long gone.
And, despite the hopes of many as expressed in these comments pages, it is hard to see Sullivan selling up if we do go down. He would lose so much (although selling at a loss would appear to be at least part of the new West Ham Way). I so hope I am wrong; but I am, for the first time in over 60 years, numb and unable to see where the dawn will come from. Alas.
The usual list of complaints…….broken club, it’s all the owner’s fault, no one can play in the stadium, managers don’t want the job, blah, blah, blah.
Now stand back and ask yourself – would you want to manage a club whose fans do nothing but complain and protest?
Win a European trophy? Not good enough.
Big shiny 60,000 capacity stadium? Nah, not good enough. But other teams have no problems winning there, just as they didn’t at Upton Park.
Owners that have hired every sort of manager and made every level of professional appointment? Nope, we want different ones!
Owners that have backed managers with hundreds of millions of pounds worth of players? Nope, they were all the wrong ones.
Someone needs to just sit down, give their head a little wobble and realise that the only common denominator of the last fifty years is the fans.
Coincidence? I think not.
Now picture yourself as a billionaire looking to invest in a London football club. You cast your view round, but somehow watching a bunch of entitled Cockneys marching against anything and whining about everything they don’t like doesn’t make an attractive proposition.
I’ve had 55 years of this.
There’s a lot of truth here. Moyes has always said he enjoyed his time at West Ham. If that’s true it isn’t the poisoned chalice this article seems to make out. I seem to remember certain people who run this site saying they thought, at the time, Potter was a good choice for manager. Hindsight, huh?
Surely even West Ham in the current chaos wouldn’t sack NES why are you saying this ? Yesterday you were saying the club were clear NES was not in any danger.
No new manager could suddenly do better – back NES don’t sack him. It would make the club look even worse as a place to play or manage to do such a stupid thing. At least give him an opportunity to get some input on the squad he wants.
Bilic was a great player for us and a lovely guy but an awful manager hence why he’s usually available.
He had one great season with us because of Payet then was scuppered when he left. He’s failed in every managerial job since. His entire reputation is built on the Croatian team full of World stars that only needed a ball not a manager.
Sounds like you’ve given up all hopes of survival Gonzo.