#grahampotter – Under The Hammers

What do we know about Nuno Espirito Santo, West Ham’s fourth manager in less than 18 months

When I wrote last week’s article ‘If West Ham were to appoint a new manager who would it be?’ which was published last Friday little did I know that just 24 hours later we would know the answer. It was no secret that Graham Potter’s position was under significant internal scrutiny with managerial alternatives being considered. He was under growing pressure to keep his job following a massively disappointing start to the season.

Nuno Espirito Santo, who had been sacked by Nottingham Forest following their home defeat to West Ham, was the odds-on favourite to replace him and that was what happened. That’s quite ironical isn’t it? Nuno was dismissed in the first international break and it was widely believed that the next break would signal the end of Potter. But the sack arrived sooner than we expected, but not before time. As was written in the statement on Saturday morning ‘results and performances over the course of the second half of last season and the start of the 2025-26 season have not matched expectations.’

You can say that again, 19^th in the Premier League table, six wins in 25 games, and an inability to defend corners which has resulted in seven goals conceded, an astonishing statistic that he appeared to have no idea how to reverse. In fact he struggled badly and seemed to be at a total loss in so many areas of managing a top-flight football team.

So who are we getting? What do we know about Nuno, who has become our fourth manager in less than 18 months? He retired as a goalkeeper at Porto in 2010 and began his coaching career as a goalkeeping coach. In 2012, Rio Ave, a Portuguese top division side, announced his appointment as manager and in his second season in charge, his team reached two major domestic finals as he led them to the UEFA Europa League for the first time in their history.

He became manager of Valencia in La Liga (Spain) in 2014 and led them to a fourth place finish in his first season. He was named La Liga Manager of the Month three times but resigned in the 2015-16 season after a poor start to their domestic and Champions League campaigns.

In 2016, he signed a two-year contract with Porto, however after a season with no silverware but a second-place finish in the league, he was sacked at the end of just one season.

In 2017, he became the new head coach of Championship club Wolves, signing a three-year contract. He led the club to the Premier League after a six-year absence, achieving promotion with four matches remaining in the season and being confirmed as champions with two games to spare. Wolves finished seventh in the 2018–19 league season; it was the club’s highest Premier League finish, and their highest in the top-flight since the 1979–80 season when they finished sixth. They also qualified for a European competition for the first time since the 1980–81 UEFA Cup, reaching the UEFA Europa League.

The 2019-20 season that was interrupted by Covid saw Nuno’s team achieve a second consecutive seventh-place finish in the Premier League (with a record points total for Wolves in the Premier League of 59), and reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League, the club’s best such performance since being finalists in the 1971–72 UEFA Cup. At the end of the following season Wolves announced that Nuno would leave the club by mutual consent at the end of the season.

In June 2021, Tottenham Hotspur announced Nuno as their new head coach on a two-year contract with an option to extend for a third year. He achieved the best start to a Premier League season for Tottenham with three wins from their first three matches. He won the Premier League Manager of the Month award for August, but on 1 November, after his team lost 3–0 at home to Manchester United, their fifth loss in seven matches and which left them ninth in the table, he was dismissed after less than four months in charge and was replaced the following day by Antonio Conte.

In July 2022, he was appointed by Al-Ittihad in the Saudi Pro League. He won the 2022 Saudi Super Cup in January 2023 and also won the club’s first league title in 14 years that season. He was sacked in November 2023, two days after a 2–0 loss to an Iraqi club in the Champions League.

In December 2023, he was appointed head coach of Nottingham Forest. He helped to secure the club’s survival from relegation with a 17th-placed finish. In his second season by January 2025, Forest sat third in the Premier League table on the 40 points defying the expectations of most pundits, who had predicted at the start of the season that Forest would struggle and get relegated. He became the first Forest manager to win the Premier League Manager of the Month award three times in a single season. The club eventually finished seventh and qualified for the Europa League, their first participation in European football in 30 years.

In June 2025, Nuno signed a new contract to stay with Nottingham Forest until 2028. However in September he was dismissed after three Premier League games of the season. The sacking seemed to arise due to his relationship with Forest’s owner Marinakis. Surely it was nothing to do with results!

One thing that stands out is the fact that in every case, more games have been won than lost in all seven clubs Nuno has previously managed. The same cannot be said for Graham Potter, Julen Lopetegui or David Moyes. It was a promising start at the Hill Dickinson stadium on Monday night, especially in the second half. I won’t look at the playing style of the teams he has managed at this stage; we’ll see how it transpires at West Ham in the coming weeks.

If West Ham were to appoint a new manager who would it be?

It’s no real secret that Graham Potter’s position is under significant internal scrutiny with managerial alternatives now being considered. He is under growing pressure to keep his job following a massively disappointing start to the season that plunged to new depths following last Saturday’s home defeat by Crystal Palace. Even prior to Saturday’s loss – our fourth from five Premier League games – it was widely reported that we had started the process of identifying potential replacements for Potter. He is the odds on next Premier Manager to leave his post at 3/10. Ruben Amorin is next on the list at 15/2.

Nuno Espirito Santo, recently sacked by Nottingham Forest, is understood to be among the options we have identified and is currently the favourite to be our next permanent manager. All sorts of stories exist about him being interviewed by Karren Brady and being spotted in Theydon Bois, close to the home of David Sullivan, Birch Hall, his palatial mansion nearby. The prospect of Slaven Bilic who has previously played and managed us returning on a short-term basis has apparently also been discussed internally. According to the betting odds these appear to be the two standout candidates.

We have not won a Premier League game in front of our own supporters since 27 February and have lost all three home matches this season to London rivals Chelsea, Tottenham and Crystal Palace. We have now lost our opening three home league games for the second consecutive season. Despite defeat, Potter described the performance against Palace as “spirited”. Asked if he still felt he had the support of the club’s board, Potter said: “Yeah, I’ve no reason to think not.”

Before Saturday’s game, thousands of West Ham fans protested against how the club is run and called for chairman David Sullivan and vice-chair Karren Brady to step down. But it seems very unlikely that it will happen in the foreseeable future.

So what next? With no change at the very top of the club a new manager will surely be appointed sometime soon, perhaps at the beginning of the international break? But what will happen if (in the extremely unlikely event) we manage to win at Everton and (even more unlikely) at Arsenal too? Will the manager be kept on? I seem to remember a similar situation when Lopetegui was manager.

So what are the odds on who will be West Ham’s next permanent manager? These change regularly according to who has been spotted where and other rumours that circulate. But the latest list that I saw read as follows:

Nuno Espirito Santo 4/7, Slaven Bilic 5/4, Gary O’Neil 5/1, Sean Dyche 12/1, Michael Carrick 14/1, Scott Parker 16/1, Liam Rosenior 20/1, Eden Terzic 25/1, Kieran McKenna 25/1, Gareth Southgate 25/1, Michael Beale 25/1, and then a whole host of others at 33/1 including Steven Gerrard, Brendan Rogers, Damien Duff, Frank Lampard, Danny Rohl, Lee Carsley, Chris Hughton, John O’Shea, Marco Rose, Ole Gunnar Solksjaer, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Robbie Keane, Ralph Hasenhutl.

Who do you think it might be? Do you fancy a flutter?

West Ham Monday Briefing: Corner Capers, Graham’s Crackers and Board Duplicity

How much longer can West Ham’s worst ever manager hang on at the London Stadium as he masterminds a twelfth defeat in 23 games. And what to do about the Board?

Welcome to West Ham where the misery never ends. Forget about the football. Enjoy the thrills of boardroom chaos, supporter protests, creeping apathy, clueless management and a spineless squad touted as relegation certainties.

Everybody knows it is only a matter of time before Graham Potter is shown the exit door at the London Stadium. Who’s ever heard of a manager ‘turning things around’ where performances have been awful for 20 plus games over eight months, and with no obvious signs of improvement on the horizon. What tactical masterstrokes could he possibly have up his sleeve to combat threats from a physical Everton side and set-piece specialists Arsenal in the two games remaining before the next international break?

West Ham have now beenbeaten in 12 of the 23 league games under Potter’s leadership (14 from 25 when cup games are included). At 52%, his lose percentage is higher than any other of the club’s Premier League managers, including the much derided Avram Grant. Why prolong the agony any longer than necessary?

Needless to say, replacing the coach is one small part of the multiple problems facing West Ham. Akin to putting anti-itch cream on a rash. It might provide welcome temporary relief, but the underlying chronic disorder lingers below the surface. The turmoil the club finds itself in hasn’t materialised overnight. It is a cumulative decline ten or more years in the making. As the business of football has evolved elsewhere to embrace strategic thinking and professionalism, West Ham have been petrified in an amateurish world of short-term thinking and season to season existence.

The club statement issued to supporters in the hope of heading off the planned Hammers United protests is a prime example of how tone deaf those in control are. Most likely penned by Karen Brady (sorry, Baroness Brady of Knightsbridge) – with a little help from ChatGBS – it was nothing more than a vain attempt to convince what a fantastic job they had all done over the years. No acknowledgement of the many mistakes made, the promises broken or an acceptance that change is needed to restore the identity, pride and passion to this great club.

I wonder what advice would be given to any business hopefuls on The Apprentice who had refused to listen to their customers, made promises they never intended to keep, and failed to hit any targets on product or experience. Just where do I find this world-class team and world-class stadium?

The obvious frustration is that in circumstances where the board are also the principal owners it is almost impossible to sack them. A change of ownership would be a complex and long winded process. The only interim hope for change is if the minority shareholders are sufficiently alarmed to band together, sideline David Sullivan and replace Brady with someone who understands the business of football. Over to you, Mr Czech Sphinx.

As far as Saturday’s game was concerned, it was more of the same from the fragile Hammers. Far too slow in possession and increasingly vulnerable at set pieces. Every opposing manager will have a clear idea now how to overcome Potter’s West Ham. Commit players forward, press high (safe in the knowledge they are too slow on the counter), and aim to win as many corners as possible.

It was amusing to hear one pundit’s view (Tony Gale, I think) that Potter would have had a word with his players at half-time about moving the ball forward more quickly. How ironic given that fannying around in the middle third safety zone is the very essence of Potterball. It’s what he dreams of, and why he is so besotted with the sideways passing skills of James Ward-Prowse. Potter was momentarily Wenger-like in his post-match comments by claiming not to have heard 50,000 boos when withdrawing Crysencio Summerville and Mateus Fernandes and leaving his favourite firmly in place. Now that JWP’s dead ball mojo has completely deserted him, he has nothing left to offer other than being a nice guy. A montage of his free-kick goals will soon be available to view on All Our Yesterdays!

It was a surprise to no-one when the opening Palace goal resulted from one of many corner kicks. As I understand it, West Ham do not employ a dedicated set piece coach. The role was added to the responsibilities of one of the existing coaching staff in much the same way as you give the new kid in the office a high-vis jacket and hard hat and call him the fire marshal. Not that it needed a coaching badge to tell Max Kilman that his job is to win the ball at all costs, even if it means occasionally getting hurt in the process.

Whoever signed off on a £40 million fee and seven-year contract for Kilman needs their head examining. In a crowded field for worst ever value for money West Ham signing he is in with a real shout of a podium finish. I’m all for ball-playing centre-backs but not when it comes at the expense of speed, strength, determination and defensive nous.

There was a brief period in the game immediately after Jarrod Bowen’s equaliser (where would we be without him) where the Hammers asumed the ascendency. The visitors suddenly looked rattled as West Ham belatedly discovered a sense of purpose and that they were allowed to attack with pace. Kyle Walker-Peters and Malick Diouf were looking dangerous along the flanks and Lucas Paqueta had a goal-bound header cleared off the line. But once Palace regained the lead, home heads dropped, and it was game over.

Once again, there was no evidence to support the assertion that Potter has a strong track record of developing young players. Several academy stars (Freddie Potts and Calum Marshall) who had featured heavily in pre-season were omitted completely from the matchday squad and will be questioning whether a pathway to first team action actually exists. Soungoutou Magassa and Luis Guilherme were given brief late runouts but at that stage of the game it was a thankless task. The earlier shape and discipline having transformed into a park football free-for-all by then.

There is something seriously wrong in any organisation where managers are repeatedly appointed at a time of crisis. Potter’s demise is now purely one of timing. If interested in the job, I expect Nuno Espirito Santo to be next up. Not that he is the ideal man for the task but because he is available and has shown at Wolves and Forest that he can work with what he’s got to produce a functioning team. It certainly wouldn’t be a long-term relationship as he will almost certainly fall out with Sullivan within 18 months or so. Unfortunately, the other desperate names in the frame (O’Neil, Bilic, Dyche, Benitez) all fill me with a sense of foreboding. As ever, the wild card is that Sullivan will screw up yet again by doing something truly stupid.

So there we have it. Stick with Potter and relegation is highly probable. Nuno would provide a fighting chance of mid-table obscurity even if it might not be an exciting ride. It’s about the best we can hope for until change is made at the top. If Nuno doesn’t fancy it before the international break, then find a willing caretaker to navigate the next couple of games. COYI!

Just four games into the Premier League season, but West Ham’s match against Crystal Palace on Saturday could be crucial for Graham Potter.

I’ll begin this article by referring you to Geoff’s excellent Monday briefing this week. It says it all really. Perhaps I can try to cheer you up?

Is the game against Crystal Palace a ‘must-win’ for Graham Potter? The pressure is surely building. West Ham have suffered league defeats to Chelsea, Tottenham and Sunderland to start the 2025/26 season; We have conceded the most goals (11), the most goals from set pieces (6) with all six arriving from corners. We have the worst goal difference (-7) equal with pointless Wolves, the biggest differential of goals conceded versus expected goals conceded (xGA) and sit eighteenth in the table. It’s not yet a relegation struggle but early indicators suggest that it may soon become one. Having said that one win could propel us into the top half of the table! But can we win this Saturday?

Derby defeats to Chelsea and Tottenham never go down well especially at home. But somehow they might have been bearable if we had been in the game and not capitulated once falling behind. Once Chelsea went 2-1 up, and after the second-half whistle went against Tottenham, we crumbled under the pressure. It didn’t take a lot for us to collapse. The 3-0 loss to newly-promoted Sunderland was the same after the first goal was conceded. A similar defeat to Crystal Palaceat the London Stadium on Saturday will be hard for us to take.

The manager’s record since arrival makes poor reading. It is in the Avram Grant area when it comes to winning matches. It’s eleven home games in the league, two wins, eleven away games in the league, four wins. As a manager Potter has faced Palace ten times and beaten them twice (4 defeats 4 draws). He says that everyone at the club is singing from the same hymn sheet. It’s just a shame that instead of singing ‘The Mighty Fortress Is Our God’ our keeper and defenders are singing ‘When I Survey The Wondrous Cross’.

One piece of nonsense I’ve read in the past week is saying that our keeper Mads is too small at 6ft 1.3ins. The tallest Premier League keeper is Nick Pope at around 6ft 5ins and most of the keepers are within an inch or two of Hermansen. In fact two Premier League keepers are shorter than Mads, they are Jordan Pickford and David Raya, and they do rather a good job and can command their areas well. I’m sure Mads is probably a decent shot stopper. He needs to be coached properly and convinced that he is allowed to leave his line and not leave it to our zonal marking defenders to try to win crosses that are landing within a couple of yards of the goal line.

Earlier I wrote about our abysmal record of conceding goals from corners (6 in just 4 games). We also have a big lead in conceding corners this season (32 in the four games). Every club (other than us!) seems to have analysts who have worked out our achilles heel. Ironically Palace have won fewer corners than all the other teams and are currently bottom of the league for winning them. If they have done their homework I reckon they’ll be moving swiftly up that particular table by Saturday evening.

Do you fancy some more positive statistics? Overall in history we have beaten Palace more times than they have beaten us. But if we take a look at the last three seasons in isolation then in the six games played we have lost four of them, winning just once, the 2-0 victory at Selhurst Park last season when Palace began the season very poorly.

Let’s broaden it a little and take the last six seasons into consideration. We have beaten Palace three times in those 12 games, all victories in South London. But we haven’t beaten them in the last six home games against them. That’s right you have to go back to December 2018 for the last time we collected three points against them at the London Stadium. Snodgrass, Hernandez and Anderson were our scorers in a 3-2 win that day. Of all the players on duty that day either in the starting eleven or on the bench only two could possibly be playing this Saturday. Fabianski was in goal for West Ham – could he make a return after he left the club in the summer? The other one was Wan-Bissaka who was playing for Palace that day but is supposedly not available for the game.

Let’s try a different tack and look at our recent form against all teams at the London Stadium. We haven’t won any of our last seven home Premier League games. The last three have been awful; we have lost them all scoring just twice and conceding ten. The last time we lost four home league games in a row Manuel Pellegrini was the manager. He never managed another game for us at the London Stadium. There’s a warning for you Mr. Potter.

Let’s look at Palace’s form away from home now. They have lost just two of their last seventeen away Premier League matches keeping nine clean sheets in their previous 15 on the road. Their previous nine away clean sheets beforehand came over a spell of 51 games. They have been very formidable on their travels.

All these statistics don’t make for good reading do they? Some questions in my mind as I write this. How did Kilman cost £40 million? How did Todibo cost £35 million? Will Brighton’s sixth choice Brazilian centre back on loan with us turn out to be an improvement on our other much costlier centre backs? Who will play in goal, Hermansen, Areola or Fabianski? I reckon Hermansen will keep his place. What has happened to Wan-Bissaka this season? How many corners will Palace get? Have we worked out how to deal with them? How many of my predicted ten outfield players will start the game? They are: Walker-Peters, Julio, Kilman, Diouf, Paqueta, Magassa, Fernandes, Bowen, Summerville, Wilson. There are some others I’d like to see given more minutes – Guilherme, Potts and Irving are three of them.

Do you think we can turn things around?

West Ham Monday Briefing: Boardroom Blitz, Mads Hands, and the London Stadium Vincibles

Dysfunctional football club seeks coach to work alongside controlling and untrustworthy Chairman. Only unemployed applicants need apply.

Apart from when the actual games are being played, there is never a dull moment at the London Stadium these days. Fan protests, emergency board meetings (where even the elusive Czech sphinx put in an appearance), alleged resignations, share sales and manager speculation have all resurfaced in the wake of the Hammer’s abysmal start to the 2025/26 Premier League season.

On the sidelines, smug commentators have also returned to reprise their refrains of ‘Careful what you wish for.’; ‘The supporters are delusional.’ ‘There never was a West Ham way.’ As if expecting your team to entertain, to play on the front foot, to play with passion, to show determination, to hurt for the badge, to cause occasional upsets, to start each game with belief should be considered delusional.

Dashed expectations have been the norm at the club for most of my supporting life. The highs (and trophies) have been few and far between. Sure, success was great on the rare occasions that it turned up, but following West Ham has always been about pride, belonging, commitment and community – not adding entries to the roll of honours. Ignore those connections and the club loses the last remnants of its soul. A business run by accountants – no longer a sport – where supporters are customers and spreadsheets calculate average revenue per ticket sale.

The game has changed tremendously since the founding of the Premier League. Finances play an increasingly pivotal role on the decisions clubs must make in building squads and planning for the future. Not a problem for the rich clubs whose revenues and sponsorship deals leave room to spare, but a major headache for all the others needing to balance the book. But where we have seen clubs like Brighton, Bournemouth and Brentford successfully adapt to the economic realities through forward looking recruitment practices, the West Ham approach has been to carry on regardless. Paying inflated fees and wages for the supposed razzle dazzle signing of established players while penny pinching on the infrastructure required for scouting, data analytics, training facilities and youth development. Apart from the unexpected gift of Declan Rice from Chelsea, the academy’s output has been shocking over the last decade or so.

There is no short-term answer to this malaise under the current leadership of David Sullivan and Karen Brady. There is little chance that Sullivan will voluntarily step down and any hoped for embarrassment directed towards him from fan groups will merely bounce of his thick skin. These people have no shame. Unless the remaining shareholders group together to vote him out, he will leave only in his own time.

In the meantime, the only plausible change posible at the club is replacing the manager/ coach – the fourth in just over a year – as the short rein of the hapless Graham Potter splutters towards an inevitable conclusion. It will be farewell to the tetchy press conferences with banal answers to inaudible questions, the head scratching team selections, the misplaced loyalty to underperforming players, the baffling substitutions, and the bewildered touchline demeanour witnessed on Saturday. He will be a disappointing footnote in West Ham’s history alongside Avram Grant.

As a typical West Ham fan, I have experienced West Ham defeats many more times than victories. After all, they have now regained leadership of the most ever Premier League defeats (462 to Everton’s 461) with a goal difference of -243. Ordinarily, I take a philosophical view to such events and they are consigned to history well before the first pint is finished or the second reading of the football results on Sports Report has aired. On Saturday, though, there was a lingering anger which simmered the entire weekend. How could such a tame surrender to an arch-rival ever be allowed to happen?

The trouble with Potter is that he thinks he is far smarter than everyone else in the room. And far smarter than he really is. He would no doubt have pasted media coverage of his brave decision to change formation and his inspired game-changing substitutions at Forest in his matchday journal. Never mind that it had been blindingly obvious to every fan that three at the back was an unmitigated disaster or that Crysencio Summerville had only been brought on to give him some minutes following a lengthy lay-off.

Nevertheless, he would see it as confirmation of his genius which would be followed up – in a home game against Spurs – by playing with no striker, putting two keepers on the bench, and expecting the slow but nice guys (Tomas Soucek and James Ward-Prowse) to dominate the midfield battleground.

Saturday’s game was relatively even in the opening exchanges. Lucas Paqueta should have done better to round off a smart West Ham move while Summerville and Malick Diouf were combining well on the left-hand side. Diouf putting several teasing crosses into the areas where lesser coaches teams might have played a striker.

As the first half progressed though, the visitors started to boss the game. Although unable to create much from open play it became apparent that set pieces were causing alarm in the Hammer’s defence. Thomas Frank had used similar tactics at Brentford on numerous occasions to unsettle previous West Ham sides.

Where Tottenham had clearly rehearsed these routines, the hosts reaction was one of panic. Mads Hermansen is too short and slight to be a dominant presence in the box and chose to stay rooted on his line. Did he know he can use his hands? The remaining defenders adopted a loose zonal marking system incapable of tracking the runs of the visitor’s. Tottenham would have taken the lead on 20 minutes had it not been for the intervention of the officials, but it felt only a matter of time before they managed to force one home.

Having survived to half-time, it was the ideal to make changes to shape and tactics. But none were forthcoming. Within 10 minutes, the game was lost. The threatened goal from a corner materialised minutes after the break, Soucek was sent off for a needless lunge, and that was it. West Ham heads dropped, Tottenham were allowed to score two more straightforward goals and the crowd went home. Thankfully, the visitors eased off after the third goal went in. The one bright spot was the introduction of Soungoutou Magassa which surely marks the end of the Soucek/ JWP axis.

The Premier League is just four games old. Three clubs (Liverpool, Chelsea and Crystal Palace) remain in contention as Invincibles and two (Aston Villa and Wolves) are potential Vincibles. Although West Ham may have escaped that ignominy by winning at Forest, the chances if a win at the London Stadium look some way off.

Potter has managed just two home wins from 11 attempts. A fortunate victory over Fulham in his first game at home and a routine win over a doomed Leicester side. In those 11 games, we have celebrated just 11 goals and endured six defeats. Time for change! Now would be perfect but a ‘three games to save your job‘ ultimatum is my predicted outcome.

Getting rid of Potter is, of course, only part of the problem. Who comes next, who is available and who is prepared to work at such a dysfunctional club are the next issues. Several hats have been thrown into the ring online with Nuno and Mourinho, as two recently unemployed managers, mentioned most often. Imagining Sullivan and Jose working together is mind-boggling and so can probably be ruled out.

The unfortunate trend, however – as with Prime Ministers – is to find someone who is even worse than what came before. Meet the new boss, worse than the old boss. In that spirit, please step forward Mr Dyche. COYI!

Bottom of the table West Ham visit the City Ground on Sunday

(Part of the Reasons Not To Be Cheerful series)

The range of subjects that can be studied these days is extensive. This week I came across an examination paper set for a group who are on a Football Satirical Studies course. They have to sit a topical examination throughout the duration of the course and this week’s paper related to West Ham. I included a copy of the paper in my article yesterday. There is a follow up paper for keen students where the Nottingham Forest v West Ham game this Sunday is previewed – I thought you might like to take a look.

Football Studies: West Ham vs Nottingham Forest – Hope, Hype & Humiliation Examination Paper

Module: Premier League Prognostics

Date of Fixture: Sunday 31st August 2025

Duration: 90 minutes – After 45 minutes you are allowed a 15 minute break (time may be added on at the end of each half of the exam at the discretion of the invigilator – just ask if you need more time – you probably will!)

Instructions: Answer all questions. Use tactical insight, historical trauma, and gallows humour. Cite Chris Wood sparingly. Emotional outbursts are permitted in moderation, although marks will be deducted (whether justified or not) for expletives. No marks will be deducted for incorrect spelling of Nuno Espirito Santo or Evangelos Marinakis although you are expected to refer to them throughout the answers to the questions. Additional marks will be given for appropriate use of Brian Clough quotes.

Section A: Tactical Forecasting (30 marks)

1. Using Forest’s 3-1 win over Brentford and West Ham’s 1-5 loss to Chelsea, model the expected possession split, shot count, touches in opponent’s penalty area and defensive errors. Include projected minutes until West Ham concede their first goal.

2. Evaluate the threat posed by Chris Wood, who has scored 13 league goals at the City Ground since last season—second only to Mo Salah. How should West Ham’s backline prepare, assuming they remember how to mark?

3. Discuss the impact of West Ham’s belated transfer dealings this week.

Section B: Psychological Warfare (30 marks)

4. Discuss the mental state of West Ham fans heading into the City Ground, where Forest have won their last four home games against the Hammers without conceding. Include coping mechanisms and chants of defiance.

5. Critique Graham Potter’s motivational strategy after two league defeats, eight goals conceded, and one goal scored. Should he quote Churchill, channel Allardyce, or simply apologise?

6. Nottingham Forest are fresh off Europa League qualification. Debate whether this fixture is a mismatch in ambition, form, or just basic competence.

Section C: Creative Prognosis (40 marks)

7. Write a fictional match report for a Forest win. Include tactical breakdown, fan reactions, and a post-match quote from Potter that subtly blames the pitch, the weather or any other laughable excuse.

8. Compose a pre-match team talk for West Ham, delivered by a disillusioned club legend. The tone of the talk should mix part Shakespearean tragedy with part East End pub rant.

9. Design a fan protest banner that captures the existential dread of travelling to Nottingham with zero points and a minus-seven goal difference. Bonus marks for rhyming.

10. “West Ham’s chances this weekend have been described as being like their midfield – thin, confused, and negligible.” Discuss this statement using metaphor, irony, and historical parallels. How will the club’s late flurry in the transfer market this week change the outcome?

Mayday, Mayday: Who Can Save Us From David Sullivan’s West Ham Madness?

A thick-skinned Chairman and thin-skinned Coach promise nothing but despair as West Ham’s abysmal season gets off to the worse possible start. There must be some kind of way out of here!

For many West Ham supporters (probably a majority), it became apparent long ago that responsibility for the underachievement, short-termism and general malaise afflicting the club is down to the leadership of one person, Chairman David Sullivan. A man whose hubris, arrogance, and pretension has led him to wildly overestimate his abilities when it comes to football, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Someone who refuses ever to learn from his myriad mistakes.

Until this week, it was not a view widely shared or spoken of outside the club’s support. In the wider, passively compliant media, supporter dissent was more likley to be depicted as a display of unrealistic entitlement by fans. Stay in your lane and accept that you are followers of a second level club who should be happy to ride on the coattails of the glamourous elite. That suddenly changed when a shambolic transfer window – and an even worse start to the season – prompted others to question what the hell was going on at West Ham. If you haven’t already come across them, I urge you to read the article in Sunday’s Observer and watch the HITC video on YouTube. Nothing new for the seasoned Hammers watcher but refreshing to discover it being recognised externally.

While this change in perception is a reaction to the dreadful performances over the last week or so, the problems at West Ham stem from a long history of under-investment and mismanagement in the boardroom. As the fortunes of English football have been swept along on a tide of global professionalism, West Ham are left stranded on an island of amateur neglect.

A club based in London with a massive fanbase which regularly features in the world’s top twenty rich list should aspire higher than mere Premier League survival. Otherwise, what is the point. Throw in the uninspired appointment of managers who regard entertainment as an optional extra, add the broken promises over the stadium move and it’s no wonder that dissatisfaction is at an all-time high.

Fewer and fewer sources – those who rely on leaks from Sullivan and family for their insider knowledge I guess – continue to peddle club propaganda regarding the constraints of financial rules and regulations. We have become wise to such attempts at distraction. Whatever financial mess the club finds itself in, it is the direct result of the board’s incompetence in the past. No plan, no strategy, and no-one with knowledge of the game to make key football decisions. Investment in scouting and data analytics is minimal and no thought has been given to the concepts of squad succession. Managerial recruitment has been based solely on who is out of work at the time and player recruitment on agent recommendations and the perceived razzle-dazzle factor of any signing.

The latest risible online ‘EXCLUSIVE’ is that Sullivan proposes to take full charge of recruitment during the last days of the transfer window. Are we supposed to thank the lord, we are saved? In truth, he has been in effective control of transfers since he first showed up. Perfectly able to torpedo any deal he doesn’t like the look of by pitching unacceptable bids or insisting on ridiculous payment terms – undermining his recruitment team(s) and alienating many a selling club in the process.

On the few occasions West Ham have tasted success in the Sullivan era, it has been by accident rather than design. The Dimitri Payet inspired season of 2015/16 and Declan Rice’s contribution to Moyes purple patch are prime examples. Moments of optimism which quickly faded and died once the principal player was removed from the scene.

While sentiments of “Sack the Board” are understandable it is improbable in a scenario where they are the only shareholders. One wonders what the other shareholders must make of it all. If they are indifferent, then it is a huge worry. The best (or only) short term hope lies with them ganging up to oust Sullivan as Chairman and replacing Brady with someone who understands the game. Brady’s reputation as a business guru is also a puzzle.

West Ham’s fortunes are now at their lowest ebb since the desperation of Avram Grant. Relegation odds have been slashed on the back of two abysmal performances with survival hopes pinned on there being three even worse teams to take the fall.

Following defeat at Sunderland, the Graham Potter masterplan was to make a single change, replacing the sluggish Guido Rodriguez with the lumbering Tomas Soucek. I can’t quite put my finger on why this didn’t work or why the defence which was shocking at the Stadum of Light didn’t suddenly become impenetrable. Unsurprisingly, Chelsea were gift wrapped five goals without barely having to break sweat.

The one glimmer of hope in Potter’s disappointing spell last season was that he was able to cling to his mantra of being competitive in every match. This has now been shot to pieces and underlines the flaw in his approach. The style of play means his team are never going to score many themselves and, therefore, require a near perfect defence in order to pick up any points. With a trio of centre backs lacking both the physical and mental toughness to compete in the Premier League, this is almost certain to fail.

There comes a period in almost all West Ham seasons where the manager is given so many games to save his job. It is unusual for this happen before the clocks change but reports suggest that Potter already has just two matches to save his – the EFL cup game at Wolves tomorrow night and Sunday’s league visit to Nottingham Forest. If that is the case (and without the prospect of any timely new recruits), he may as well start packing his bags.

Potter comes across as remarkably thin-skinned for a football manager. He is on record as saying he doesn’t care what people write but if he were to ask my advice this is what I would tell him. Put Alphonse Areola back in goal until it is obvious that Mads Hermansen is match ready; abandon the playing it out from the back nonsense, it is more trouble than it is worth; bin the 3/5 at the back formation in favour of a back four (4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1); pick the best two centre backs at heading the ball; prioritise pace and strength in the midfield as much as that is possibl; push Jarrod Bowen back out wide where he is at his most dangerous; don’t leave out players solely because they have challenged your approach in the past; try not to play anyone out of position or get carried away by what you perceive as your own tactical brilliance; buy some lucky heather.

Potter’s departure wouldn’t bother me at all – his football is as dull as anything – but we just know that whoever follows will be equally unimpressive. Another knee-jerk such as Dyche or Cooper to bore the pants from us. Would any progressive manager be stupid enough to sign up under the current regime? I doubt it.

These are truly depressing times as a West Ham supporter. An early exit from the EFL Cup and pointless in the league until late October is a distinct possibility unless three or four inspired signings emerge in the closing days of the transfer window. COYI!

Reasons NOT to Be Cheerful (Part 3) – West Ham’s woeful start to the 2025-26 season – will it continue when facing the Club World Champions?

October 19^th 1968. Does that date mean anything to you? It does to me. And to Geoff Hurst probably. It was a Saturday that didn’t start particularly well. I was playing football for the school 3^rd year team (I think that’s Year 9 in new money). We were a relatively small school with not a lot of boys to pick from. We (Barking Abbey) were at home and lost the game 8-0 to Dagenham County High. How can you remember such detail I hear you ask? The reason is what happened that afternoon.

With my school mates we headed off to Upton Park to watch the Hammers. We were 14 and could go to games without parents, not that we’d have wanted them with us. I’m not sure that you can go without them these days at that age. I remember lining up in the queue to get in. I think it was 2 shillings (10p) to get in but it may have been a little more. The programme cost 1 shilling. We had eaten our hot dogs from one of the stands in Green Street and were always keen to get in early to take our place on the ‘big step’ in the North Bank slightly to the left of the goal about halfway back. We always bought peanuts (tanner a bag) from the vendor who walked round the pitch before the game and at half time. We threw the sixpence down to the pitch and the bag of nuts was duly passed back.

But I digress. The game that day was against Sunderland. What were our hopes? Well we had started the season with six wins in our first eight games. Martin Peters had scored eight goals in those eight games. Geoff Hurst had scored six in the eight games. Those six wins had included a 5-0, 4-0 and a 7-2. We were third in Division One and at one time had topped the league.

We then went nine games without winning prior to the Sunderland game (although to be fair it included six draws). Geoff thought it was about time he overtook his good mate Martin and duly smashed home six goals against the Mackems (I think only the second double hat-trick scored by a West Ham player). Martin didn’t score that day but Trevor (Brooking) and Bobby (Moore) chipped in as we thrashed Sunderland 8-0. Ironically the first goal in the game took half an hour to arrive but once the goals started to flow it became a rout. Our next three home games that season saw us beat QPR 4-3, Leicester 4-0, and Man City 2-1. I remember them all with fondness for different reasons. We finished the season in a very respectable eighth place. Again, in true West Ham fashion we lost the return game to Sunderland at Roker Park 2-1 just nine weeks later. Geoff Hurst inevitably scored our goal. In fact he scored quite a few goals against them in other games too.

When I was young in the sixties I was always bemused by the older generation fondly telling me about how great football used to be in the days of heavy leather footballs held together by laces. They reckoned the game was better when shorts were longer and hair was shorter and players had a maximum wage. I suppose I’ve probably turned into one of them myself – the ‘it ain’t as good as it were in my day’ brigade!

So let me return to last Saturday’s opening day debacle in the North East. Remember we were playing against a side promoted via the play offs with eight newcomers in the starting eleven. An even first half was followed by an absolute shambles in the second period especially when the first goal went in. The 3-0 loss wasn’t just a bad result it was a performance that screamed fragility, collapse, and so many other words that you could insert. There was no bite in midfield, no pace, no power, no plan, no strategy, three central defenders who couldn’t seem to head a football. The third goal was exactly what I warned about in last week’s article – the 3-5-2 system leading to potential problems when the opponents broke forward at speed leaving gaps in the traditional full back areas. I wrote that better teams would exploit a weakness in the system. If Sunderland did then others will follow. There were defensive gaps that you could drive a bus through and attackers who barely threatened (Bowen excepted).

And now we face a home game against the top club side in the world. Well of course they’re not really but they have just won the Club World Cup defeating teams who we couldn’t even get close to at the moment. Our relegation odds collapsed from 7/1 to 3/1 after just the first game and Potter’s odds have shortened to 2/1 to be the next Premier League manager out. Unless he can manage to galvanise the squad and rectify the ‘oh so many’ issues then we are in a season-long survival scrap.

I hate to write this but surely we don’t have a prayer against Chelsea on Friday night. They have the tactical structure, Palmer’s creativity, Pedro’s flair and Caicedo’s midfield bite that gives them a spine that we cannot match as well as a choice of so many players that we can only envy. They have defensive solidity (6 clean sheets in last 10). Our confidence is surely fragile so is there any hope? In the past I would have fancied us under the lights at home but surely the result is just a foregone conclusion in our current state.

Chelsea have won four of the last five meetings between the sides. Their recent form includes victories over AC Milan, PSG and Bayer Leverkusen. Despite a 0-0 draw against an easily underestimated Palace team, who performed so admirably winning the Community Shield a couple of weeks ago, Chelsea did dominate possession (71%) and chances (19-11 shot advantage). Failure to win at home will have stirred them into upping their game this week. Finishing is a potential weakness and despite creating chances they perhaps lack a clinical edge (am I just clutching at straws?). Maresca will be pushing them for sharper execution in front of goal.

I desperately hope that I am wrong. The Opta supercomputer apparently gives us a 22% chance of winning the game. I find it hard to believe that the figure is that high! Come on you irons! Prove me wrong!

West Ham Wednesday Bulletin: Graham Plotter And The Window Of Uncertainty

As other clubs fine tune their squads for the upcoming season, the promised squad rebuild at West Ham remains stalled in the planning and plotting stage. It’s all looking disastrously last minute.

Updating Transfer Windows – 13% Complete – Please Do Not Switch Off

What better way to undertake a massive summer squad overhaul than to leave everything until the last minute. While other clubs move with purpose to secure their chosen signings, the good folks at the London Stadium are left paralysed in an endless loop of talk but no action.

At the time of writing, eight players who featured in the first team last season have already checked out. If reports are true, the club are also willing to push a further three or four through the departure gates over the coming weeks. Regardless of the quality of the departed, it’s one hell of a gap to fill with just over four weeks to go before the big kick-off – despite yesterday’s welcome signing of El Hadji Malick Diouf from Slavia Prague.

As fans we are frequently reminded how important it is to get in a full pre-season. It is the go-to excuse manager’s use after every poor start. And yet the cunning West Ham plan is to enter theirs with barely half a team. Past performance caveats notwithstanding, Graham Potter’s inability to create a cohesive unit in five months last season does nothing to dispel fears that there’s a season of struggle ahead – and the further hit of revenues that comes with it.

If anything can be read into the Diouf signing, it is that Potter intends to settle on a formation that involves wing backs providing width in advance of three central defenders. Possibly a 3-4-3 but, more plausibly, the less enterprising 3-5-2 underpinning the coach’s dream of competitively losing most games by a single goal. All that’s needed now then are the missing, keeper, central defenders, midfielders, and forwards to convert the dream into possession-based reality.

The transfer window stays open beyond the start of the season until September 1. There are sure to be more ins and outs – eventually, and almost certainly later than desirable. As always the list of online speculative targets is as lengthy, abstract and mysterious as Jeffrey Epstein’s’.

The Madness of Chairman Dave

It would be unfair to point the finger of indecision exclusively at Potter and Kyle Macaulay for the absence of transfer activity. For all we know, they have been working diligently and with laser sharp focus on a data driven list of potential young and athletic recruits to fit their chosen style of play. Players who would both improve the squad technically and ensure that it is faster, fitter, and younger. The signing of Diouf looks an excellent first step in that direction.

But as we all know, hovering in the background of any transfer negotiation is the malignant interference of Chairman Dave and his Baroness sidekick. Ready to scupper or derail the latest recruitment plans as he had with Husillos, Newman and Steidten in the past.

By chance, I came across an article I had written in 2017 (below) after hearing a Sullivan radio interview where he “accepted that by focusing on proven and experienced ability the club had adopted a short-term view for its player recruitment.” The suggestion being that this short-term thinking was about to change. But here we are eight years later beating the same drum on the club’s failure to adopt any semblance of long-term strategic thinking.

Sullivan: Give Me Just A Little More Time!

The West Ham friendly media continue to frame the Hammers transfer dealings as a delicate PSR balancing tightrope. Indeed, there may well be trouble ahead if PSR is not abandoned (as many expect) in favour of a simpler squad cost ratio. But this is not a today problem. And if the worse comes to the worse, why not sell the women’s team to yourself as others have already done?

The most recent financial distraction has involved scare stories circulating about the need to repay the club’s overdraft facility with Barclays Bank. This is an arrangement that has been in place some years and its relevance has been significantly exaggerated. In fact, a standout feature of West Ham accounts in 2024 was that the club has next to no financial debt, having paid off any external loans at the time of the last cash injection into the club. This is quite unusual for a Premier League club where financial debts of £300 million or more are not uncommon. It should be noted, however, that financial debts do not include outstanding instalments on player transfers.

Clearly West Ham do have a cash flow problem. It is something the Board must address independently of any PSR considerations. The need to inject capital on a regular basis is now an essential requirement for any Premier Club with ambition. If the current board are not up for that, then it’s time to find someone who is.

It’s Been The Ruin of Many A Poor Buy

I have mixed feelings about the transfer of Mohammed Kudus. Not that he was sold but the size of the fee that he finally went for.

Unless the club is bought by a sovereign wealth fund or similar, the only way West Ham can hope to mount a consistent challenge at the right end of the table is to profit from player sales. When you consider that Manchester City’s kit partnership with Puma earns more in a single deal than the Hammer’s combined Commercial and Matchday revenues then the size of the gulf is clear.

Kudus should have been a perfect model of buy low, sell low. Pick him up from a lesser league, develop him over a couple of seasons and sell on at a handsome profit. Yet despite early promise, it didn’t work out like that.

Some may say it’s good riddance to a player with a bad attitude. Others may see a player who became fatally frustrated with how he was handled by a succession of poor management decisions. Whichever it was, his first season promise evaporated to the point where none of the truly rich clubs were tempted by the lure of his buy-out clause. Throw in Sullivan’s bizarre decision to let the world know how skint West Ham were and it provided the perfect storm for Daniel Levy to nip in and buy Kudus at a knock down price. The transfer fee may represent an accounting profit of £30 million or so – a rare bounty for West Ham – but it should have been far higher.

Tottenham has often (along with West Ham and Manchester United) been one of the Premier League career graveyards for big money signings, but I predict Kudus will be a big hit there if Thomas Frank translates his rapid counterattacking style of football from west to north London.

Young, Gifted and Back (On The Bench)

For a club that styles itself as the ‘Academy of Football’, the record for developing young talent in recent years has been abysmal. In the last ten years, new academy graduates have made a total of 253 Premier League starts for the Hammers. Of those, 190 were Declan Rice with the remainder comprising Ben Johnson (38), Ollie Scarles (7), Grady Diagana (6), Jeremy Ngakia (5), Reece Burke (4), Reece Oxford (3). Without the good fortune of picking up Rice when he was rejected by Chelsea it is very sorry reading.

The idea then that today’s current batch of youngsters might come to the club’s rescue as ‘Potter Gives Youth A Chance’ sits somewhere between wishful thinking and clutching at straws. I am as thrilled as anyone whenever a player emerges from the youth setup to become a West Ham regular. And hopefully, one or more of the current crop can do so. But history advises caution.

I try to keep tabs on the players out on loan from West Ham season but did not get the sense of outstanding successes that some have been reporting. No-one really pulling up the proverbial trees. I would be very happy if there are breakthroughs this season but I wouldn’t want to bet our Premier League future on it.

Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Potter If You Think West Ham Are Done?

With Potter’s ‘competitive’ Hammers tumbling to the eighth defeat of his reign, he is now destined to end the season with a worse record than the derided and sacked Lopetegui. Where on earth do we go from here?

Whatever the outcome of West Ham’s season closer at Ipswich next weekend, Graham Potter will end the season with an inferior points per game record to the sacked manager he replaced. Being unable to raise even this lowest of bars makes a mockery of his claim that the team have become more competitive under his stewardship. How can a football team be more competitive, yet the outcomes be worse? The operation was a success, but the patient died!

One wonders what Potter’s objectives for the season were when he sat down on day one at the Rush Green training ground. Time would, of course, be needed to get to know the squad of players he had inherited; their strengths, their limitations and how they would fare as part of a possession-based team. But after that, what next? What if the players were not suited to his preferred style of keep the ball at the expense of anything else football? What if his mission to become tighter at the back could only be achieved by stifling the attacking threat of your most valuable players? Experience suggests there was no apparent plan for such scenarios. No desire to find an equilibrium between the ‘vision’ and what the resources could deliver. Just carry on repeating what didn’t work, or couldn’t be accomplished, regardless. The pursuit of perfection as the enemy of good.

If a significant proportion of the squad are unlikely to be still at the club come the start of next season anyway, why fixate so stubbornly on converting them to an alien style of play in the interim? And why not use the risk-free time for experimentation and to take a look at the club’s youth?

The predicament has been no more obvious than in the games played at the London Stadium. The record speaks for itself: two wins and four defeats in nine games with just ten goals scored. Hardly the stuff to keep supporters entertained or on the edge of their seats. Where there have been decent performances (or results) they have all come in away games. The coach has spoken about turning performances into points, but no home fixture springs to mind where the team picked up fewer points than deserved.

It was a rinse and repeat performance for Sunday’s visit of Nottingham Forest. Flattered by the previous week’s success against a disinterested and demotivated Manchester United, Potter elected to field an unchanged starting eleven. He obviously anticipated no downside to pitting the world’s slowest midfield against an opponent famous for the speed and precision of their counterattacks. Oblivious also to the idea that supporters might welcome a display to shout about in the final home game of a dismal season. What has so often been celebrated as a carnival occasion had turned into a wake. Leave them wanting more, isn’t that what they say? Who in their right mind would want more of what the coach has served up so far?

As ever there was an all too brief opening flurry from the Hammers. A lively start that saw a smart save from a Tomas Soucek header and a moment where Vladimir Coufal might have broken his West Ham goal scoring duck. In his post-match comments, Potter said they had tried to be on the front foot, but it was never going to last long with the unambitious lineup he had chosen. True to form the visitors first took control of the game, if not possession, and then took the lead when the folly of playing out from the keeper was mercilessly exploited by the impressive Gibbs-White. It is clear to even the most casual observer that Alphonse Areola is like a deer in the headlights with the ball at his feet, and yet the tactic has persisted.

For a team that scores so few goals, falling behind is a routine fatal error. Not once this season have West Ham recovered from conceding first to win a game. It was a record that never looked like coming to an end this time either. Forest were happy to concede possession, sit deep in the knowledge their opponents lacked the craft and imagination to break through, and wait patiently for the opportunity to score a second.

In a break with tradition, the Hammers passed on the half-time substitution ploy in favour of a quadruple change just before the hour mark. The switch had an immediate impact when the visitors doubled their lead shortly afterwards. Two changes at the break and two on the hour would surely have been less disruptive.

However, with the slowest players removed and the introduction of several with a more progressive mindset, the intensity of the West Ham attacks increased. An intensity fuelled by a growing frustration at the visitor’s blatant and unpunished time-wasting tactics.

This game has to be up there with the worst ever when it comes to the combined efforts of the officiating team. The referee was criminally weak on the time wasting and play acting employed by the visitors – a tactic that descended into embarrassing as the clock ticked down. He had lost control well before the end and the bizarre drop ball sequence that preceded the final whistle. Meanwhile VAR taking six minutes to decide whether an offside player had impacted play or not was a further example of how it has failed to fulfil its original purpose of checking for obvious errors. It has taken on a life of its own to look for things that no-one wanted from it and which had never been an issue in the past. If the authorities want to take action to improve the integrity of the football, then it should look at eliminating the cancer of dark arts that is increasingly creeping into the game (I’m looking at you, Nottingham Forest). Not checking for sub-millimetre offside calls.

We were at least treated to a wonderful Jarrod Bowen goal before the game ended. To repeat what many others have said: where would we be without him? There was also a very respectable cameo from the talented Luis Guilherme in the closing stages. Why haven’t we seen more from him – or from the academy players come to that – given the overall pointlessness of the past dozen games or so? And what the hell happened to Andy Irving who after a promising start at Chelsea has only played one more minute of first team football.

Thankfully, there is only one more game of the campaign to endure. I’m assuming we will start next season with Potter in charge but there is a mountain for him to climb if he is to convince as the right man for the job at West Ham. Even if he and Macaulay do manage to work wonders in the transfer market (and I believe their contribution to Brighton’s success in that area is wildly exaggerated) there are still many questions as to how well the football fits with supporter expectations. The media holds him in high esteem, but I do wonder what that is based on. It’s not from winning games and enterprising football. COYI!