What do you do when you have a problem like Maria? Those of you of a certain age will recognise that song/phrase. If you don’t, I suggest looking out for a film called The Sound of Music. It’s always on around Christmas. Substitute the name Maria for James and you arrive at our very own West Ham quandary. So what do you do with a problem called James Ward-Prowse? Well, in this case, sell him. Simple as.
Immediate Impact and the Moyes Fit
I once wrote an article discussing the merits of our now-departed midfielder, but I guess that fell on deaf ears, as manager after manager seemed to have no idea what to do with him. After loan deals, he has finally returned from whence he came.Yes, Ward-Prowse is back on the south coast, seemingly joining the long line of players signed with a fanfare and sparking a lone trumpeter sounding the last post. But was he really that bad that he couldn’t hold down a place in a squad full of relegated players? On his signing for the Hammers, his initial performances were quite spectacular and his impact was immediate. On his debut against Chelsea, he supplied two assists; shortly afterwards, he scored at Brighton. He also supplied two assists against Nottingham Forest in November, both from corners, and later produced an extraordinary direct corner against Wolves. But he was not exactly a goalscoring midfielder. In that first season, his seven goals and seven assists were impressive, but two of those goals were penalties. At set plays, he certainly gave us an attacking option. But he signed for close to £30 million, and the belief was that he would fit in well with David Moyes’s scheme. We had just won the Europa Conference League. Declan Rice had gone, and it was clear that we needed an experienced Premier League midfielder. Ward-Prowse was 28, durable, technically accomplished, an England international and already one of the league’s premier dead-ball specialists. Surely this was a marriage made in heaven. We had scored 10 goals from corners in the previous season. Our manager at the time, David Moyes, liked crosses, corners, second balls, aerial threats and attacking set pieces. Ward-Prowse supplied the delivery, and then we had Soucek, Zouma, Aguerd and others attacking it. Ward-Prowse arrived in east London with an extraordinary reputation. When he joined West Ham, he had 17 direct free-kick goals, only one behind David Beckham’s record. Yet in that first season with West Ham, he actually registered zero direct free-kicks. But maybe his real worth was in his delivery.
Tactical Evolution and Managerial Instability
Under Moyes, Ward-Prowse could sit in midfield, circulate possession, compete, deliver corners, take free-kicks, cover ground and allow the more explosive players to attack. But as the team started to evolve, his limitations became apparent. Our midfield needed greater pace and dynamism rather than simple control and delivery. It meant his best qualities became less central to what West Ham wanted. So what went wrong? First up, Moyes left and Julen Lopetegui arrived, and soon Ward-Prowse was on his way on loan to Nottingham Forest. He had made, by then, over 50 appearances for the Hammers and scored seven goals. We weren’t loaning out some forgotten squad player. We were loaning out a £30m signing after one season in which he’d been one of their most productive players. And here comes the irony. He only played 10 times, and the loan spell was cut short at Forest, who at the time were managed by Nuno Espírito Santo. Ward-Prowse therefore ended up returning from a loan to a club whose manager already knew him, and that manager apparently didn’t want him. That, to me, is about as clear a sign of tactical/personal incompatibility as you can get.
Financial Depreciation and Return to Southampton
Ward-Prowse did play six times for Graham Potter, but not once under Nuno. The initial loan was also an indicator of West Ham’s intentions. In simple terms, I feel it was the Hammers saying, “We don’t have a role for you, so go and play somewhere else.” The subsequent loan to Burnley was a case of trying to find somewhere for him to play and hopefully recoup some of his transfer fee. Almost a desperate act, which of course would damage any fee the club might be offered. The club messed up. They should have sold him much earlier. Instead, they loaned him to Forest without a purchase option. Then he returned, then Nuno froze him out, and then he went to Burnley. And now Southampton have brought him back for a reported fee of less than a million, with only a year left on his West Ham contract. The question now was no longer, how do we recover £30 million? It was: is keeping him worth more than whatever Southampton will pay us, plus the wages we could save? Ward-Prowse’s West Ham salary was reportedly around £3m gross per season. For a Championship club, that becomes significant. So, once West Ham had decided Ward-Prowse wasn’t central to the project, keeping him for another season was illogical. But why Southampton? Ward-Prowse is a Southampton boy. From Ward-Prowse’s perspective, it is difficult to imagine a more emotionally satisfying conclusion. He joined Southampton’s academy at eight. He made over 400 appearances for the club and was their captain, only leaving because of relegation. It genuinely looks as if he could help the south coast club get promoted, maybe even at our expense.
Assessing the Legacy of a Mismanaged Signing
So was he really a bust at West Ham? Well, in his first season he was joint-top for West Ham assists and led the Premier League for set-piece chances created and set-piece assists for significant portions of the campaign. He also scored that extraordinary direct corner against Wolves and produced two assists from corners against Forest. But West Ham paid £30m really for just one season. Then came Lopetegui, the Forest loan, Nuno, and finally Burnley and being frozen out again. I honestly believe that there were many Hammer supporters who liked Ward-Prowse, myself included. I wanted him to succeed and believe the club let him down. His first season was excellent. His definitive moment was that goal against Wolves, direct from a corner, not because it was necessarily his most important contribution, but because it captured the entire Ward-Prowse experience. He had spent months delivering dangerous balls into the box. His teammates hadn’t always converted them. It was as if he simply said, “I’ll do it myself”. But his best performance has to be that 3-2 win over Forest in November 2023, where his two corners directly produced the goals that turned the game around. The real disappointment is that a relatively big-money signing who produces 14 Premier League goal involvements in his first season should normally be somebody you build around or, at minimum, somebody whose transfer value remains substantial. Instead, within a year, he was surplus to requirements. So was he really that bad a signing? The financial outcome is difficult to argue with: A £30m purchase price, 75 West Ham appearances, one genuinely excellent season, two loans and eventual departure for a reported fee below £1m. But the recruitment made considerable sense. He was a proven Premier League midfielder, had just come through relegation with Southampton, was entering his prime and fitted Moyes’ football extremely well. West Ham didn’t buy a bad player. They bought a very specific player for a very specific footballing environment, and when Moyes left, that environment changed. Under Moyes, Ward-Prowse looked like an obvious fit. Under Lopetegui, he became expendable. Under Potter, he was useful again. Under Nuno, he was effectively finished. Let’s not forget he was a regular under Potter before Nuno’s arrival and then didn’t play a minute for West Ham after Nuno took charge. So I will not remember Ward-Prowse’s West Ham career primarily as “£30m for a set-piece specialist who didn’t work”. I will remember it as a very good Premier League midfielder who had one genuinely excellent season at West Ham, whose skill set was closely tied to a particular manager and style, and whose club never found a second act for him. West Ham’s mistake may not have been buying him. It may have been buying him without knowing what they would do with him after David Moyes.
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