Now if Ann Widdecombe were still with us, I could expect an email missive from her later on tonight, which would go along the lines of… “I enjoy your Sunday Newsletter but I do NOT want to read about football. Honestly. Spare us!”. Anyway, here goes.
Now admittedly, I was one of the ringleaders in the West Ham campaign to oust Sam Allardyce back in 2015, but I’m not a great fan of calling for a manager to be sacked so early in the season. However, I’ll make an exception for West Ham’s Nuno Espirito Santo.
It’s not unusual for relegated teams to struggle in the first few games, and West Ham have been no exception. They lie in 19th place with only two points from their first three games. The 4-1 victory over Southampton in the Carabao Cup looked as if it would spark our season, but the manager then made eight changes for the match yesterday against Watford. He left out Luis Orford, who has had an outstanding start to the season, to the perplexity of all. Josh Ajaja, a 19-year-old striker who has come up through the youth system and who scored two goals at Southampton, remained an unused substitute at Watford. Unfathomable, in a team which only had three shots all match. He didn’t even get on for a last five minute cameo.
It’s not just the team selection, that is a problem. Just listen or watch his pre-match or post-match interviews. He mutters complete inanities, and it’s the same every time. No wonder he can’t seem to motivate most of the players. He also has a verbal tic, in that whenever he’s interviewed and under pressure he repeats most of his sentences. “We must all work harder. We must all work harder.” “We must concentrate. We must concentrate.” Kill me now.
Players know when a manager is on his way out. He won’t be sacked this week or next, although if we lose our next two home matches against Wolves and Derby, I suppose it’s possible. But unless things change, and change quickly, I can’t believe he will still be there at the end of October.
West Ham has had its problems for years. We had thought when David Sullivan stood aside, that Daniel Kretinsky would take full control and things would be different. Initially they were. He got rid of some of the old senior admin staff and appointed come good new people, but things were then upended by Amanda Staveley trying to buy into the club. This has totally disrupted the summer. We gained £200 million in player sales, yet have only spent £28 million. The rest is being used to stabilise the finances of the club and pay off debt. Good. But the boardroom situation needs to be sorted out before it starts really affecting the rest of the club.
On the bright side, we have a tremendous crop of youth team players coming through. I’ve already mentioned Lewis Orford, but we have left backs Oliver Scarles and Ezra Mayers, centre backs Airidas Olambeckis and Kaelen Casey, as well as attackers Josh Ajala, Preston Fearon and Josh Landers. They all have a bright future.
Returning to the position of the manager, of course, the grass is not always greener on the other side, as we found out when Graham Potter succeeded Julen Lopetegui but Eddie Howe or Kieran McKenna couldn’t be worse. Could they? Come on You Irons!
