The price of Prague: Have West Ham gone backwards since Bowen’s winner?

It’s been two years and four months since Jarrod Bowen scored the winner in Prague but has the club gone backwards since? We saw David Moyes have one more year, Julien Lopetegui was with us for eight months, Graham Potter also had eight months, and now Nuno is starting his reign.

Is Nuno the answer? I’m really excited with what he can bring to the club because he’s very passionate and he’s proven he can take teams into Europe. But the big issue is if he will get backed in the right way, because no one can do well without that.

The £105m Question: Wasted Transfers and No Plan

Another issue we have seen sacking all these managers is that they have had the chance to bring in their own players. So we have ended up wasting so much money on players who will now not start under Nuno, for example £30m on James Ward-Prowse. With the squad changing so much every year we haven’t had any consistency.

When it comes to the signings that have come in, especially since Declan Rice left, we haven’t really seen any standouts. We received £105m for our captain and we have never come close to replacing him. You see other clubs sell their best player for £100m and they have a plan. Did we ever have a plan?

Also signing Guido Rodriguez, Callum Wilson and Carlos Soler are just another set of players who come in on a free or on loan that don’t seem to actually fit into our team; it’s just a freebie. If we want to improve as a team, this needs to stop.

The Potter Project Failure: Lack of Backing and Time

I blame our owners more for the managerial failures. Potter explained how this was a huge transfer window and we didn’t get his number one choice until the season had already started and most signings happened in the last two weeks, so he had no time to get used to the squad. So yet again things didn’t work out and now it’s Nuno’s go and he has all the players Potter wanted.

If it doesn’t work for him, we will carry on this consistent circle where the negativity just keeps growing around the club. Let’s just hope the owners give him a fair chance to succeed.

Breaking the Cycle: Nuno, Investment, and Unity

As a fan, I think we all want West Ham to be a positive place again, having owners that want to invest their money and time to see us operating at the highest level. We want players that we can see trying to progress at our club, not one’s getting another year of good money then leaving… But mainly we want a team that fights for everything and believes that European success can be achieved again.

Right now I think we are stuck not knowing if the owners will invest in the squad, stadium and training ground. We’ve got players who we all know won’t be here long and management that keeps changing so we never really know the plan.

The negativity around the club leads me onto the protests coming up. I hope the owners understand our frustration and either change the way they run the club or sell… Prague felt like the change but no change actually happened, a lot of hard work to get us that trophy but nothing happened since.

The fans are doing their part to try and bring the old West Ham back and hopefully Nuno can get the best out the players and West Ham can become a positive place again for everybody.