EVERY MAN and his dog has an opinion on [West Ham’s](https://www.claretandhugh.info/west-ham-to-target-box-to-box-midfielder-with-3-man-shortlist/) plight just now. None of it makes comfortable reading for Hammers fans but at least the dispute between supporters and board is getting the oxygen of publicity. Most seem to be coming round to the idea that, having blamed successive managers and player shortcomings the only common denominators are David Sullivan and Karren Brady’s hands on the helm during a torrid few seasons.
Few report on the current dreadful state of affairs better than the [dailymail.co.uk](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-15219741/West-Ham-Nuno-Espirito-Santo-relegation.html) who write a painful litany of mistakes, poor decisions and incompetence.
_“Coming away from the game on Monday night, it was impossible not to feel the similarities with Leicester’s demise, a side that went from FA Cup winners to the Championship in just a few years, and from title holders to relegation in seven._
_That was another club whose fans could smell something was wrong. They could feel its soul being ripped out as bad decision after bad decision left a toxic divide from the grass, to the stands and to the boardroom.”_
The very real fear that West Ham could go from European Champions to Championship football in three seasons is probably the catalyst which has got the fan base mobilised: Bad decision after bad decision has chucked millions away as each manager came and went with their own hugely expensive team of coaches, recruiters and scouts. And yet, here we are again, back at the drawing board with another load of hirings and firings.
As the ‘Mail’ puts it:
_“Eventually, as West Ham are now finding out, the rot becomes impossible to stop.”_
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And yet. It is still early enough in the season for points to be won, for changes to be made, for ten wins to be magicked out of the remaining thirty fixtures. Everything – and that’s not an overstatement – depends on the selections which Nuno sends out onto the pitch between now and December.
For there is enough in the side to turn it around. ‘Teams’ that sweat buckets for each other on the pitch tend to do better than eleven individuals, however talented. And that’s the challenge for Nuno. To put the fancy words aside and create a strong eleven that’s prepared to get their shorts dirty for the team, to win ugly and dig out a few points.
Where are the fighters? Time to stand up and be counted.