West Ham United star Mateus Fernandes says Nuno Espírito Santo’s arrival at the Premier League side has personally benefited him.
The midfielder arrived in the UK when Southampton signed him from Sporting in August 2024.
Southampton dropped to the Championship, allowing West Ham to secure his services last August for over £40m [€46.2m].
At that time, the Premier League side had Graham Potter as their manager and replaced him with Nuno in September.
The 21-year-old played 2,506 minutes from 30 matches for the Hammers and three of it were under Potter. He managed three goals and three assists in the Premier League and below are his stats per game in the league.
|Premier League 2025/26||
|---|
|Big chances created|2|
|Key passes|1|
|Shots on target|0.2|
|Interceptions|1|
|Tackles|3%|
|Ball recovery|4.9|
|Duels won|5.4|
His performances for West Ham saw him receive his first call up from Portugal manager Roberto Martínez for the March international break.
Nuno’s importance for West Ham
Earlier today, Mateus Fernandes attended a press-conference and O Jogo have relayed his comments. He is pleased to have made it to the national team squad.
“I’m very happy to be here. It’s always been a goal this season. I know the quality is very high in the National Team. Perhaps it’s the best team, in individual terms, at the moment. It was a good surprise. It was something I worked for,” he said.
The player remains hopeful of not only debuting for Portugal but also making it to the World Cup.
West Ham now 18th in the table, a point behind 17th placed Tottenham Hotspur. They lost only three matches since Paco Jémez was appointed as Nuno Espírito Santo assistant in January.
The Spaniard recently said the morale in the group was low when he arrived at the club. He talked about increased confidence within the club. The midfielder now insists Nuno’s side shouldn’t be in the relegation battle.
“Last year I had to find positive things. The daily work, the things we do off the field, the disconnection when we lose so we’re not always in a negative ‘vibe’. It was very important for me to consolidate myself at West Ham this year,” Fernandes explained.
“The arrival of manager Nuno also brought me a lot of stability. He trusts me a lot and when you feel the manager’s confidence, things happen naturally. I also know the size of the club, which is fighting for the top spots in the Premier League table. We’re not happy, but we have to turn things around.”
Portugal matches and squad
Friendly v Mexico on March 28th [29th UK time]
Friendly v USA on March 31st
Players called up by Roberto Martínez:
Goalkeepers: Diogo Costa (FC Porto), Jose Sa (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Rui Silva (Sporting CP)
Defenders: Matheus Nunes (Manchester City), Diogo Dalot (Manchester United), João Cancelo (FC Barcelona), Nuno Mendes (PSG), Goncalo Inacio (Sporting CP), Renato Veiga (Villarreal), Antonio Silva (SL Benfica), Tomas Araujo (SL Benfica)
Midfielders: Ruben Neves (Al Hilal), Samu Costa (Mallorca), Mateus Fernandes (West Ham), Joao Neves (PSG), Vitinha (PSG), Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United), Rodrigo Mora (FC Porto)
Forwards: Ricardo Horta (SC Braga), Pedro Goncalves (Sporting CP), João Felix (Al Nassr), Francisco Trincão (Sporting CP), Francisco Conceicão (Juventus), Rafael Leão (AC Milan), Pedro Neto (Chelsea), Goncalo Guedes (Real Sociedad), Goncalo Ramos (PSG)
🇮🇹 Federico Gatti | €25m could be enough for West Ham and Nottingham Forest 💷 Financial concerns forcing exithttps://t.co/FpRX2p28Pt #whufc #nffc
— Sport Witness (@Sport_Witness) March 11, 2026