Forum | General Discussion

This morning, for the first time since suffering relegation on the final day, Nuno Espirito Santo has sat down on the West Ham YouTube Channel and discussed his thoughts on relegation, the upcoming season, summer changes and the overall feeling coming into the Championship.

Whilst the video contains what you’d tend to see in a discussion as such, he does mention a few key details amongst the 13 minutes.

Initially speaking, Nuno spoke about how he was thankful to the board for the backing and faith in him in being the man in charge to uphold the task of returning to the Premier League, also thanking the fans for the belief that they have in him - something he reiterates numerous times.

Speaking about next season, in response to questions around the summer, is the most fascinating part of the interview.

Nuno says that he “definitely” understands what he needs for next season and that this season “is the beginning of a new cycle”.

Additionally, upon being asked about summer changes, Nuno discussed commitment, saying that “Everywhere I go, we have this commitment”, and also loosely mentioned that he feels this from the staff, players and the fans - the indication of having backing from the players was as brief as one could be, but that would be anticipated given the monumental amounts of outgoing to come.

Despite a large number of expected outgoings, Nuno did say that "many of our players are getting ready for the new challenge and this is really positive for us, so we're looking forward to it". Whilst the specific players are unknown, it is still a positive that there's been an indication behind the scenes that "many" sound prepared to stay.

Swiftly moving on to the changes that are expected, Nuno said that it is “not about transforming the art, but it is about the commitment and responsibility of getting West Ham back to the Premier League”, further reiterating that “it is not about the names or who, but it is about how we want to do things, which team we want to be. We have a very good platform - now we need to build on it.”

Can you blame him? West Ham fans have said for ages that there are too many players at the club who are just picking up a wage and don’t care about the club, something with which Nuno has agreed.

It certainly “isn’t about the names”; it’s about building a club or heart, the way West Ham used to be run.

Upon being spoken about as one of the favourites, Nuno did not shy away.

“We cannot hide that we are favourites”, but acknowledged that “we have to do it ourselves”.

Regarding whether he was excited about the next campaign and the journey ahead of us, he simply responded, “One day less to go”.

Spirited and high on belief, Nuno ended on a hard-hitting summary of a sentence - “We only have one mission, me, you, everyone here, we must get back to the Premier League.”

Over to you, Nuno, over to you.

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!