I’m fully aware West Ham are not mathematically relegated from the Premier League yet.
And for anybody still clinging to the hope that Tottenham Hotspur won’t gain another point this season, I’m certainly not here to douse your fireworks.
But from my own perspective, the inquest into exactly what has gone wrong at West Ham is already continuing.
I use the word “continuing” rather than “starting” because realistically, most Hammers fans have had concerns about how badly this club has been run for a very long time.
Yesterday’s capitulation against Newcastle United felt symbolic because it was painfully obvious neither the manager nor the players were remotely prepared to compete in a must-win game.
Shambolic Effort From Everyone at West Ham
And make no mistake about it, West Ham did not compete either tactically or physically in the club’s biggest match since Prague.
The performance was so disjointed that had I not known who was sitting in the dugout, it could easily have passed for a team managed by either Julen Lopetegui or Graham Potter.
The fact it was Nuno Espírito Santo in charge didn’t seem to matter one bit.
Because West Ham appear to be consistently dreadful at appointing managers and ultimately that responsibility falls at the feet of David Sullivan.
Bowen Comments Only Added To Frustration
What irritated me more than anything were some of the comments afterwards suggesting the players simply failed to follow instructions regarding the press.
Captain Jarrod Bowen admitted after the game:
“We’ve got no-one to blame apart from ourselves. The press was wrong, we were late jumping up to them and we were making mistakes.
“I don’t know how you explain it. You can look for excuses, but ultimately we knew what we were doing. It’s hard to find the answers.”
Well, I’m sorry, but that simply isn’t good enough.
At this stage, I’m not even sure I have much desire left to ask why the players failed to do their jobs.
West Ham Need A Full Clear-Out
I also have little interest in trying to understand why Nuno chose the wrong formation, the wrong personnel and then decided to switch his central defenders around to such disastrous effect.
I genuinely think we’ve reached the point where a complete clear-out would probably be best for everybody involved.
Many of West Ham’s players have been linked with clubs competing in European football over recent weeks.
That alone suggests there is genuine quality in this squad.
But they simply do not perform like it.
At this stage, excuses, explanations and mitigation all feel pointless.
The club now appears to be in such a bad state that I genuinely believe it will take new ownership, new management and an almost entirely new squad just to begin the recovery process.
Knowing our luck, either spurs will lose both games and we’ll stay up OR Man City will be deducted 40 points and we will have to stay up in this farcical league.
Fingers crossed we go down for a while.
Gonzo, I don’t want us to stay up, I want us down, I cannot stand another season of this next year. If we stayed up every West Ham fan knows Sullivan would still sell all of our best players to pay for the debt HE has got us in. So let us get relegated and lets start again with a new manager, a new team and hopefully a more hands on Kretinsky
Well you’ll one of the three Gonzo although I’m not sure we have a squad and haven’t for years now. We have a decent starting XI on paper.
Those will be sold/loaned, which by my reckoning will leave us perhaps with Potts, JWP, Kante, Scarles, Mayers who have experienced first team football.
I’m gonna stop reading the site for a while until the summer has played out as I’m not sure I can take 3 months of the Champ Manager wannabies who took Southend to Champions League glory bang on about how we can now play all the kids. If I hear people talk about Earthy like he’s some midfield genius when he has done f all at Bristol City I will need to sign up to an anger management class.
We’ll need a Kevin Nolan figure to come in and lead from the front. Which Bowen is unable to do.
I’m not sure whole sale change at the ownership level, management, and playing side is possible so the priority has to be stability and ensuring we don’t do a Leicester. That’s my biggest worry right now.
I am still hoping that if Kretinsky is to become an equal shareholder, joint chairman, it is not out of love of the club of course, but it is in order to turn things around as with all his businesses and eventually increase the value of his investment including current holdings. Maybe, but maybe not a season’s turnaround, but certainly a longer term plan as he knows about football clubs and how they work and that is the only way to run a business.
Perhaps, this will bring around the fundamental changes the club needs and which many fans are talking about? I do not think DS would leave, but he would no longer be sole decider and K. will have available a team of knowledgeable experts who know all about fixing failing businesses, marketing,… and football clubs.
Might be completely wrong, in which case we have some good youngsters, but they’ll struggle in the Championship and it will need time.
Most of all we absolutely must have a good coaching setup, to make the most of what there is and play good football.
Totally agree , a full reset needed , one owner would be a start not three or four all disagreeing with each other. Bring the youngsters in and add a few journeymen with a bit of desire… then the fight back begins.
I’ve said before, and I’ll keep saying – this is an organisation that needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. Root and branch, top to bottom, all aspects (not just the playing side). What the club is right now makes a mockery of us as supporters, the ones for whom everything should be geared to. I hope what we have to look forward to is no more than a year in the Championship, but the hope is what gets you. If we end up back in the Premier League with nothing having changed, then we’ll end up right back to the years of yo-yoing up and down that we used to have to deal with.
If Sullivan remains as the prime decision maker nothing integral will change. He needs to be sidelined with an experienced football senior management team installed who have the power to make decisions.
Removing the equally inept Brady was a definite step forward and hopefully our new CEO will stop the scoring of own goals by bringing an end the headline grabbing but ultimately stupid comments (world class stadium with a world class team; we stick by our managers – have you seen your record Baroness? – we have the record of continuous EPL membership just months before relegation. As for our financial performance under her stewardship, it beggars belief she is still held by some as a competent operator – perhaps they haven’t checked our balance sheet.
Kretinsky needs to step up to the plate, even if the motivation is simply to protect his own investment.
We have been sliding for years…With the occasional blip of a result…We brought Moyes back for the second time ..Yes it goes back to then ..Probably further ..Pelegrini?..Maybe…Slaven and the Payet betrayal?..All played out in the media circus because of one mans ego trip….Well the chickens have come home to roost as the saying goes!…The PL has got tougher to survive ..VAR is the ring master now Sullivan..You cant control it with your grubby little hands…The end game is next Sunday ..Even if we are officially down by then..A half empty stadium will echo with derision …No one will care apart from the long suffering fans..Im done with it all.
It goes back a lot longer than that to Avram Grant. We’ve always been a bit schizophrenic throughout our history (at least in the days of Greenwood and Lyall the football was admired by others even if there was the odd hiccup like the infamous FA cup defeat to Blackpool in the early 70’s). Under Fat Sam we were unattractive defensive long ball merchants, but at least he knew how to grind out results, but from then onwards regardless of Manager we’ve always been a low possession counter attacking team without the pace required to make it successful. Why? Basically because the squads have been poor, a few gems mixed in with a lot of Sully specials meaning most managers have had no option but to play in such a defensive way. You can change the Manager, clear out the squad, but while Sullivan is still at the helm nothing will really change and I can see another relegation and administration in the near future.