The 2023/24 and 2024/25 seasons have not been good for West Ham United. At the time of writing, we’re on our fourth manager in two years, terrible at football, and sitting firmly in the relegation zone. Palace Manager Oliver Glasner has won more games at the London Stadium in the three times he’s visited than Graham Potter did in the eight months he was the manager there.
The club has been a circus – and not even one of the better circuses in town, but the kind where all the clowns have diphtheria, the tents are on fire, and an elephant has just sat on your car. The future isn’t looking bright… when you can’t look forward, you may as well look back to the past to try to understand how the future plays out.
For us, we’ve set the dial on the claret and blue time machine to the 2009/10 and 2010/11 seasons to see whether or not we can expect history to repeat itself in east London this year.
2009/10: Chaos, New Owners, and Narrow Survival
2009 should have gotten off to a good start for a side who finished in ninth place in the previous season, but manager Gianfranco Zola‘s Hammers won their first league game of the season – and then didn’t win again until November.
They faced significant turmoil off the pitch, with an August game against Millwall spilling out into fights in the streets and a stabbing, and an owner that went bust as part of the Icelandic banking crisis.
The Icelandic financial crisis had the long-reaching negative consequence of leading David Sullivan to West Ham United, alongside the late David Gold, as the two arrived at the club in January during this turgid season. Things got worse almost immediately… We went until early May before narrowly avoiding relegation. We won away only once that year, and finished 17th – just five points above the relegated Burnley and Hull City.
On paper, it certainly wasn’t the worst selection of players available, and there were a number of internationals in the side, including England’s Rob Green, Kieron Dyer, Scott Parker, and Matthew Upson. This side also had the benefit of having Mr West Ham, Mark Noble, on the pitch and in the dressing room – but he was just 22 years of age, and likely not the senior leader we knew at the end of his playing career.
2010/11: The Season of Record Collapse
The 2010/11 season was, of course, significantly worse. Not only did we get relegated; we finished dead bottom of the league, having conceded our record number of goals in the Premier League. This record took until David Moyes’ last season at West Ham to be beaten; be careful what you wish for, eh?
After finishing in 17th place in the previous season, we threw everything at the wall to try to improve our fate – and by ‘throwing everything at the wall’, we mean we hired Avram Grant, who had just relegated Portsmouth. What followed is some of the worst football we have ever been subjected to.
Reinforcements were brought in to try to improve the squad by way of Winston Reid, and Wayne Bridge, as well as Northern Ireland’s Robbie Keane, who were confusing at best. Even with all that on the team sheet, we got off to a dreadful start to the season in the league – same as we have this year – but had a surprisingly bright cup run, which we have not had this year.
The Alarming Math: Current Form is Identical
By the start of October 2010, we had won just one league game – against Tottenham – with four league losses and one draw (four points total). In today’s money, our league form is identical – we have won one game, lost four and drawn one (four points total). The math is adding up to relegation form for us.
One thing that did run in the favour of the squad and results of 2010/11 is that we didn’t often lose by more than two or three goals… In contrast, once teams open up the current side, they can continue to score almost unimpeded, with us already conceding five against Chelsea this early in the season.
Nuno Espírito Santo: The Hope for Stability
The Hammers of today do have an advantage in their willingness to change, with manager Graham Potter having finally been given the push…
Our fans will hope that the most recent change in manager to Nuno Espírito Santo, who brought Nottingham Forest back into European competition for the first time in 30 years, will be what the players and club need to be able to grasp stability and escape the clutches of relegation.
With 32 games to go this season, there’s 32 opportunities to learn from the past and change the future for the better – and with a new manager with a proven track record of improving results, we could finally be on the right track for a better, more stable, future in the Premier League.
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