As the fall out from West Ham’s relegation continues, speculation is rife that the Hammers and Nuno Espirito Santo are about to part company. The Portuguese manager has failed in his role to rescue the Hammers but it is the manner in which his dogmatic and stubborn reign stumbled for several early games.
Nuno, you will remember, fiddled and meddled with his starting eleven, frequently playing players out of position and withdrawing attackers to surrender leads – which contributed so much to the Irons demise.
It turns out that there were concerns back in January over Nuno’s approach and in particular his treatment of West Ham players. Reported in sportbible.com, it is now apparent that the board ignored the warning signs:
“West Ham board were ‘concerned’ by Nuno Espirito Santo’s treatment of James Ward-Prowse
Ward Prowse banished from an already thin West Ham squad – reportedly for non-football reasons
Ward-Prowse, who spent the second half of the season on loan at Burnley, was told he had no role to play as soon as Nuno Espirito Santo arrived at the club, according to a report from The Athletic.
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It is said the West Ham board were ‘concerned’ about how he was alienated.
The report also claims that when Nuno spoke to players after his first training session, he told Ward-Prowse in private that he would not feature as part of his plans and would have to train by himself until a transfer was agreed.
The club board was worried by the bold decision but knew that they had to back the manager, given that they had appointed him.”
Neither Espírito Santo nor the board come out of this looking good. West Ham, you’ll remember, had already endured multiple dressing room spats with Todibo and Kudus falling out with Lopetegui and Niclas Fullkrug reportedly ranting at Potter.
Regardless of the decision to play Ward Prowse (few would argue with the selection decision) Nuno’s treatment and banishment of the midfielder (possibly for his now infamous alleged ‘baldy’ jibe) smacks of small mindedness and a pretty poor way to treat a £20 million-plus club asset.
All par for the course on the good ship West Ham United which is now well and truly shipwrecked.