2 days ago
8
19th in table
©TM/IMAGO
Just seven goals scored and 20 conceded. One win, seven defeats. West Ham have endured a miserable start to the Premier League season. But what's been even worse than the results have been the performances. Laboured. Lethargic. Uninspiring. There has been no 'new manager bounce' since Nuno Espiríto Santo replaced Graham Potter. The Hammer's issues have stretched back sometime, both on and off the field. In fact, across the calendar year of 2025, if we exclude promoted and relegated clubs, no side has accumulated fewer points than West Ham.
Losing games has become a worrying habit for the East London side. They currently sit in 19th position in the Premier League table ahead of hosting Newcastle this Sunday. If things don't drastically improve, then relegation is looking a real possibility. West Ham have been in the Premier League for 14 consecutive seasons after being promoted in 2012. So how did the club that won the Europa Conference League just two years ago, and spent three seasons in-a-row playing European football between 2021 and 2024, find itself in this mess?
West Ham's diabolical recruitment
There's not many clubs in the Premier League right now where a bigger disconnection between the club and the fans can be felt than at West Ham. Unrest towards the club's hierarchy has been building since 2018, when club's co-owner David Sullivan had a coin thrown at him and had to be escorted out of the ground in a 3-0 home defeat to Burnley. The heroics performed by David Moyes helped put out some fires, but unrest has always quietly remained in the background.
Other reasons have also played a part in the agitation of fans, which we will come onto later, but a huge factor has been the club's recruitment, which has been a mess. And that's being polite. As things stand, the playing squad is under par and overaged. Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paquetá possess undeniable quality, but the latter lacks consistency and even reportedly wants to leave the club in January - the rest of the squad is lacking standards and certainly lacking energy.
As illustrated in the graphic above, since the 2023/24 season, just after the club won the Europa Conference League, the only ever-present Premier League club who have had a higher average age when it comes to permanent signings than West Ham (24.32) has been Fulham (25.28). Even then, the Cottagers have made significantly less transfers. In that timeframe, West Ham have signed six players aged 28 or over, including striker Niclas Füllkrug, now 33 years old, and midfielder Guido Rodríguez, now 31 - neither have made any real impact. They have also spent a total of €432.8 million in that period. Since Declan Rice left the club in a €116.6m move to Arsenal in 2023, midfield has been a real area of concern for the Hammers.
At first sighting, the signings of Edson Álvarez and James Ward-Prowse looked to be astute business, and the Rice money appeared to have been re-invested well. However, it soon became clear that that aforementioned pair, as well as Rodríguez who was bought in on a free last summer, didn't have the legs needed alongside Tomáš Souček - ageing now himself at 30. It's an area being exploited week-in week-out by opponents. Although there have been some promising younger acquisitions such as El Hadji Malick Diouf, 20, brought in for €22m from Slavia Praha, the Hammers squad largely looks old and worn out. And it's making for a tough watch for fans, who already have plenty of other reasons for feeling some dissatisfaction.
London Stadium is no fortress
Upton Park was a true Premier League fortress. Stands were tight to the pitch, a hostile atmosphere emanated from the famous 'Chicken Run' - it was a place you didn't want to go to on a cold Tuesday night. Now, West Ham play their home matches in the soulless athletics ground known as the London Stadium. The majority of supporters never wanted to leave their old historic ground and felt they were given false promises in order to accept the move. The athletics track that runs around the pitch, the huge gap between the upper and lower stands, the lack of old pubs and businesses around the ground - these factors mean playing West Ham away is not the feared task it once was for Premier League teams, and not the matchday the Hammers' faithful knew and loved.
There's another planned 'sit-in' protest for Sunday's game against Newcastle, led by the club's 'Hammers United' group, with supporters set to remain in the ground during post-match pitch-side interviews to plead for changes to the club's hierarchy. Unrest remains high. Connection remains low. For that to change, there will need to be improvements to the way the club is run away from the pitch itself. And of course, more fight needs to be shown on the field. Perhaps the reset of being relegated to the Championship is what could be needed to start building up again. To see the club in this state after winning on the continent just two years ago may come as a shock to those on the outside, but to the fans following the team up and down the country probably less so. That says it all.
