This Sunday morning for West Ham fans is like waking up after one of those dreadful office parties, hoping against hope that what you dimly remember from the night before didn’t actually happen: However much you’d like to remain blissfully in denial, soon enough though, the reality of what really went before comes crashing in.
There’s no avoiding it: The only people who care about this historic club’s predicament are the supporters.
Fans have known for years that the owners don’t care.
The players – for the most part – appear to have given up believing. As Alan Shearer put it far better and more authoritatively than I could:
“I don’t like using the word, but West Ham were pathetic. They offered nothing. Players pulling out of challenges, not throwing themselves at the ball, it was as bad as I’ve seen from any team.”
The worst part? West Ham’s millionaires were behaving as if the battle had already been lost.
It looked for all the world as if the team were just seeing out the rest of their season before skipping off to another lucrative chapter in their careers. As if relegation had already been decided.
Which is so far from the truth it makes every single West Ham fan angry and sick. Everything is to fight for. Win against Nottingham Forest on Tuesday and the Hammers are still in touch. There’s almost half the season to play. Will somebody please get their finger out, pull on that famous shirt and show some fight?
Potts, Fernandes and Magassa deserve a little tolerance, they have earned it with previous performances and they’re all in their first season. However Nuno needs to wield the axe and replace that terrible defensive duo even if it means playing u21 players, loan players, frankly anyone prepared to put in a block or a decent tackle. We’ll forgive that far more than a £40 million player who cannot even head the ball and has the co-ordination of a drunk trying to navigate a bouncy castle.
For once, Alan Shearer was right: It would be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic.
Potts Magassa and Fernandes are not a dynamic or goal scoring midfield. We need to add a midfielder who can run forward strongly with the ball and also contribute half a dozen goals at least.
Those of us old enough to remember the terrible “Bond Scheme” in another relegation season, would recognise the realisation younger fans are having. We are West Ham but who do we support ? Not the uncaring players and certainly not the board, our support is for our fellow fans because it’s us who are really West Ham. The vast majority of us had no choice in who we support either birthplace, place of residence, family inheritance or often all three. It’s us who will keep the heritage and good name of our club going in whatever division we find ourselves in COYI!
Really well said.
now i thought i was on my own regarding Bowen as captain. love the man to bits. After 69 years as a supporter one of the best players we ever had. But as captain no, no. too quite on the pitch. give it to JWB or Soucek. Jarrod if you read this watch Fernandes at Man u or Rice at Arsenal. sorry mate.
Bowen should do the right thing and step down. Finally, act as a leader.
Was I the only one who could see us losing to wolves , it had it written all over it, they have improved lately, and considering we have a manager without a clue , it wasn’t surprising , we have the players , we haven’t got anyone to inject enthusiasm into those players , let alone a useless captain, who needs to look at his own game because he can’t lead from the front, come back Declan all is forgiven
The players need to look at themselves , no fight , no energy nothing . So poor we deserve more effort energy and fight. That was awful , can’t blame Nunu how many managers in a short space of time . The players need to pick it up and run , fight, close down show energy rather than this pathetic effort .
I thought your article was perfectly put Martin.
After Forest lost earlier in the day i thought we would be up for it but no it was just the same ol’ team we have seen all season.
It doesn’t matter whether we go a goal up or down it will all end in the same result.
There doesn’t seem to be any urgency or fight in this team.
I will be going to the Forest game on Tuesday night hoping/praying that we get something out of this game.
If we lose that’s us done.
Can say what you like, but until Sullivan and his fellow Parasites are removed from this club the journey is all downhill.
Spot on
I think we saw the hidden weakness of having too many young, inexperienced players – cue Soucek who came on centrally and steadied the ship a bit but needed more. When things don’t go well then youngsters who are learning/not ready, need somebody to take control and direct them or it falls apart – manager should foresee this possibility.
Manager should take what is working and work to improve it. This is a struggling team you cannot then add the fact players need to find each other on the pitch because you have changed system AGAIN. Without Paqueta NES switched to 4-3-3 from essentially a 4-4-2 but that forward line has never worked and the whole team is used to 4 across the park. For the 1st half against Brighton the team did well and took the fight to the opposition in a 4-4-2 (as I saw it). You stick with that and work on it to improve it. So stick with 4-4-2 with Soucek centrally. Potts looked as though he was told to be a creator all of a sudden – not the right moment for this, it is not a switch you can flip. You can only switch and change players and systems if you have quality & training of say MC. WHU with inexperience and threadbare squad cannot do this.
STILL need to fix defence. Todibo + Dinos worked & everyone is criticizing Kilman. I know he is too quiet and does not organize & that is catastrophic in a CB. Igor & Dinos are not, so play them (faults and all) awaiting Todibo. Dinos is not perfect but plays with heart, communicates and never gives up. This is invaluable to a struggling team and is by far the best option while awaiting recruitment. Improve on what you have working on errors. Dinos has already improved, while Kilman has become more unreliable.
Been saying need to coach Summerville (to shoot + end product) and Scarles (positioning). You can tell that is not happening. In the first 7 minutes Summerville is in on goal for a quick shot, but prodded the ball to Wilson who was off-side busy getting out of the way. Chance lost. For the first goal Scarles is near the back post and from there with a clear view, acting as a sweeper with CBs out of position, FB will step in to pick up/block Arias. He does n’t.
2 big mistakes in under 7 minutes. All these weaknesses at player & team level add up.
Love the academy, want everyone of them to succeed but Scarles had free kicks, corners and long passes all going astray throughout the match – somebody do something about it DURING the match. Talk to him and somebody else take the bloody corners & free kicks. Amateurish.
I still find that NES lacks any initiative or astuteness upfront. No Marshall, Earthy or Pablo, no combinations. I cannot believe somebody who closes down like Marshall and brings his energy and ability, is not ONCE used as a foil to Wilson and Bowen for 30 mins. This option should have been practiced a 100 times in training, instead manager ‘does not fancy him’ or whatever so no variety or options up front all this time. Managerial mistake. Perhaps new recruits will free NES up to play better up front.
Positive note: Mayers. He looks quite secure, even under pressure.
Well said , your one of the few that talk sense and not making nonsense after every loss .. glad to hve caught your article
hey, cheers. Thanks a lot.
There are rumours going around that he only took the job to keep himself in the shop window…Hence no backroom staff…Who knows what conversations took place after Potter.
Also allegations of xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [edit by mt] .So its not looking good…We already know they are running at a massive loss with transfers…Could they be winding the club down?…Nobody wants to think that..But look at the facts…As supporters we just want to see results..However with no investment since the move its been a slow decline…Ive said before..They know what they are doing ..Splitting the fan base was just the start…Ive never known us so divided…Perhaps tumbling down the divisions and losing the stadium might not be a bad thing..At least the support that does go will be committed to the club….I can see a Wimbledon scenario on the horizon where the true support break away and form a non league club.
What’s really going on behind the scenes though. Something surely must have happened for the attitude, or lack of, that was on display against Wolves. Why no fight this time, why no real aggression, why not even some stupid late tactical changes, why not even take off Callum Wilson as per usual, why oh why? Nuno seemed frozen. He also seems to show a reluctance to look the post match interviewer in the eye. And I kind of miss the old post match press conferences where the gaffer had to face up to some pretty tough interrogation!
After first experimenting, then NES brought youngsters into midfield, went 4-4-2 (that’s how i see it) and helping defensively (even switching CBs around), I find it has all stopped now.
NES has stopped helping the team progress and is not doing anything proactively. Defence has taken 2 steps backwards, Summerville does the same thing (at least he is trying), while Wilson on, Wilson off, is the only change upfront etc.
I honestly have been asking myself a similar question ‘what is going on?’ with the managerial team
There’s usually some positive that can be taken, but from this nah. Can anyone name one thing that was up to spec ? I can’t.
The first half performance can only be seen as as bad as things ever get. In the second half they sat back knowing that we had nothing that they couldn’t soak up, we were oleyed by the support of the bottom team.
Can it get any worse ? Well the next two fixtures are at home to Forest and QPR, there’s scope for worse there and there will be worse unless attitude changes drastically on yesterday.
Nuno answered the question “is the job bigger than you first anticipated” in his post match interview with the BBC. Nuno responded with it’s very complex, for me this says it all. There is a lot wrong at the club and without pointing the finger in public, it seems he knows the club cannot and will not resolve its internal issues.
The owners complete pillage of the club, without the investment, the know how and the trust needed to build a strong premiership side is at the heart. Rather than Nuno apologising, it should be Brady, Sullivan and Kretinsky as well.
I honestly feel Nuno wants a radical change in the squad but has very few levers to pull. He is between a rock and a hard place here, take risk and lose or stick with the current squad and hope. I also feel Bowen needs to be dropped as Captain. That pathetic performance yesterday shows that he cannot galvanise a team, but the question is then who can lead amongst this batch.
What a mess, thanks Sullivan for killing our club. You finally did it.
Exactly right how it feels. I think I still fully support NES and he is the only possiblity of an unlikely escape.
But he again brought into question his tactical skill with ridiculous substitutions. A full back and a slow clumsy midfielder when you are 3-0 down against the worst team in the league?
The feeling is worse because instead of doing the right things NES lost his calm confidence and seemed lost. To walk off the pitch like that is very bad when he needs to be the central rallying point.
He used to speak confidently of plans to turn it around, this was the opposite kind of hope for the best stuff.
I hope he does have a plan or he might have realised the squad is just too bad to resolve in one underfunded window.
I still think it says something he doesn’t have his team with him it must make the job much harder and it seems like he or West Ham or both aren’t serious.
Everything you do in life should be done to the best of your ability and with maximum effort. Yesterday West Ham’s players did not and they let everyone connected to the club massively down.
The fans , Nuno , even our much maligned owners I include in that. I hope that this morning the players look good and hard in the mirror. Thinking that if West Ham drop a new club is waiting to snap them up then they are deluded
Look at your caption Kilman laying on the floor praying 🤣 that sums him up he achieves nothing seriously
Your description of our very expensive centre pack is perfect . Why can’t Nuno see that the defence was bettter when he was dropped . He puts added pressure on his fellow defenders who aren’t very good already .Why are we paying Igor if we aren’t going to play him . He cannot be worse than the waste of space we are playing at the moment . As you say ..play anyone at centre back and they can only do better .
For Forest game Soucek and Magassa as centre backs. Tom as captain. Earthy, Potts and Fernandes midfield.
Start with Pablo 🤔⚽️⚒️
I back this. We need a win and picking the same time without addressing obvious weaknesses is madness. It’s a gamble, but no more than picking the same 11 and expecting something to change.
Although things are dire, there is still time to turn this around as there are 54 points to play for, and all we need to do is to have 3 teams below us at the end of the season. I don’t think that Wolves will pick up more than 20 points, so we will finish above them. It’s a race between Burnley, Forest and ourselves.
Martin put aside the very very poor performance by West ham someone has to ask about the officials decisions on the the day. At 0-0 what was no doubt in my mind a penalty turned down. Then there are the 3 other penalty appeals for us that also got turned down, one I may add that mirrored the penalty given against Paqueta in the last game. Then to top this a very dubious penalty given against us.
You have to ask why the captain is not challenging the referee, or is that they have given up including the captain? The team giving up does not make what the officials did right, and could have changed the game at 0-0.
I totally agree with you regarding the penalties we should at least been given the one with Soucek being brought down!! The problem is Bowen is a softie and very polite. He has been given the responsibility for something he can’t be. It does not mean that you can’t lift the team unless you are captain. On the contrary look at Payet when he was playing with westham how he used to lift us, when we are sloppy. You need a captain whenever the referee gives something against us , has to think twice, as the captain will comedown on him and eat his head. Like Virgil van dyke or xhaka