Forum | General Discussion

As anticipated with the players, the Hammers are also expected to face a full revamped back room staff coming into next season, with the expectation of Nuno to be backed with people he feels he can best work with rather than the cheaper alternative.

Not necessarily affecting Nuno directly, but this morning, Maximilian Hahn has resigned from his recruitment position at West Ham, with Dylan Curnell promoted to a more senior position.

Dylan is a boyhood Hammers fan who has spent over seven years at the club working as part of our academy analysis team.

Max Hahn contributed towards a handful of signings that the managers over his period did sign, some better than others; his best likely being Mateus Fernandes, but realistically, the players targeted and signed since 2024 haven’t been good enough.

On to changes elsewhere, question marks have begun to arise over Paco Jemez. The Spaniard seemingly announced a statement of departure but also did an interview in Spain confirming that Nuno DOES want him to stay and be a part of next season.

To add on to this cryptic indication, Paco has since posted on X, "But what if it wasn't the end...?"

Additionally, the Hammers will look to appoint a technical director in the upcoming weeks. The goal is to have someone fulfilling the position before the Summer transfer window opens, as well as have the majority of the backroom staff sorted coming up to then.

The transfer window opens on the 15th of June.

West Ham United have put out a message from the Board of Directors this morning, discussing all of the troubles that have occurred, profusely apologising, but most importantly, confirming that Nuno will be staying.

“We held meetings with Head Coach Nuno Espírito Santo early this week and are pleased to confirm that he has expressed his continued commitment to the Club – as we have to him.”

“Nuno made it very clear that he is highly motivated for the challenge of guiding West Ham United back to the top flight at the first time of asking. That must be the unquestionable goal for next season. Nuno has spent one previous year in the EFL Championship, and it was an outstanding success as he secured 99 points to win the title with Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2018.”

The statement continues to reiterate their sincerest apologies and, towards the end, confirms that the season ticket renewals will open and there will be reductions “up to a 30%”

The full details will be shared at 12 today.

It is positive to see the Hammers make a decision quickly, as now the remainder of the window is spent rebuilding.

Additionally, this also proves that Kretinsky has had his way at the first ‘discussion’ that the club have had to have - potentially being a sign of things to come.

There are times in life when obnoxious individuals will shift the blame onto someone else or pawn off a problem, but in the case of West Ham, the fans have every right to take a step back from what has happened and dissect what has been a disaster-class.

Here’s how it unfolded.

Whilst the Hammers have had ongoing issues that have spanned over a decade, in the more specific picture, Graham Potter was a significant factor in how West Ham United ended up in the Championship.

Whilst he himself didn’t take charge of many games in the season, it was his summer transfer window that proved to be costly for the Hammers. The removal of leaders and characters costs us in the long run.

Names such as Coufal, Emerson, Antonio and Cresswell all could’ve played a big part within the dressing room. Whilst they might not have gotten good minutes, the lack of leadership certainly proved to be costly in the opening stages, snatching away those handful of points we could’ve had to stay up.

Nuno’s Decision

Whilst relegation seemed inevitable, a quiet round of applause should be given to Nuno for even getting this Hammers side to the final day with a fighting chance, but with that said, looking back at some of the decisions that were made, they seriously were nothing but schoolboy.

Incidents such as playing wingbacks on the wrong side, not playing two strikers, which, admittedly, couldn’t be achieved until January. Not being able to get up to speed with specific players, such as Wilson and Fernandes, to begin with, as well as playing Max Kilman for so long before inevitably dropping him.

Tactically? Nothing but a seesaw. It’s frustrating as the Hammers seemed to have found their way with the 4-4-2 formation, but Nuno refused to stick with it in certain games, and when all hope was lost, he reverted to it, which usually would end in a positive outcome - the consistency and faith within systems were non-existent.

The Mistakes and Mishaps

As well as an overall poor array of quality available to us, West Ham certainly didn’t save themselves.

Player mistakes were made across numerous different games, managerial errors of going defensive too early or poor substitutions, as well as a handful of poor VAR decisions, all played a part in our fate - it really isn’t surprising to see why the Hammers went down.

Player mistakes? West Ham 0-1 Fulham. Managerial Errors? West Ham 0-2 Brentford. VAR decision? Brighton 1-1 West Ham. - Numerous other games could also fulfil these requirements, and given that the list is that long, it does beg the question of how the relegation possibility was even taken to the final day.

Ex-managers, players, VAR, as well as the current manager, all have their share as to why the Hammers have now been relegated.

Did I forget the owners? No. I just couldn’t exceed the word count, you’d need a book, not an article to discuss that!

West Ham: Hermansen, Walker-Peters, Mavropanos, Disasi, Diouf, Soucek, Fernandes, Summerville, Bowen (C), Taty, Pablo
Subs: Areola, Kilman, Wan-Bissaka, Scarles, Wilson, Magassa, Potts, Lamadrid, Kante

Leeds: Darlow, Bogle, Justin, Rodon, Struijk, Bijol, Ampadu, Tanaka, Aaronson, Nmecha, Calvert-Lewin (C)
Subs: Perri, Byram, Bronauw, Cresswell, Chadwick, James, Piroe, Gnonto, Buonanotte