Вест Хэм Чемпионшип лигийн хүснэгтийн наймдугаар байрт бичигдэж байгаа тул дасгалжуулагчаа өөрчлөхөөс өөр аргагүй байдалд хүрсэн бололтой.
Вест Бромвич Албион багт 3-1-ийн харьцаатай хожигдсоны дараа Нуно Эспирито Сантог Вест Хэм багийн дасгалжуулагчийн албан тушаалаас нь чөлөөллөө. Энэ нь 13 сар үргэлжилсэн дарамт шахалтыг зогсоосон шийдвэр байсан ч улирал эхлээд удаагүй байхад ийм алхам хийсэн нь олон хүний анхаарлыг татав. Хэдийгээр багийн зүгээс эрс шийдвэр гаргасан ч, өнгөрсөн зун баг Чемпионшип рүү унах үед л энэ өөрчлөлтийг хийх ёстой байсан гэсэн шүүмжлэл өрнөж байна.
Нуно Эспирито Сантогийн удирдлага дор Вест Хэм 16 тоглолтод оролцохдоо 9 удаа эхэлж гоол алдсан нь багийн хамгаалалтын эмзэг байдлыг харуулж байна. Тэд лигийн хамгийн өндөр өртөгтэй буюу 282 сая фунт стерлингийн үнэлгээтэй бүрэлдэхүүнтэй хэрнээ наймдугаар байрт бичигдэж байгаа нь санхүүгийн болон спортын зорилгодоо хүрэхэд эрсдэлтэй үзүүлэлт юм. Баг одоогоор лигийн хамгийн олон гоол оруулсан баг хэвээр байгаа ч энэ нь амжилтаа баталгаажуулахад хангалтгүй байна.
Одоо тус багийн дасгалжуулагчийн суудалд Скотт Паркер хамгийн гол нэр дэвшигчээр тодроод байна. Тэрээр өмнө нь Фулхэм, Борнмут, Бернли багуудыг дээд лиг рүү дэвшүүлж байсан туршлагатай ч, дээд лигт тогтвортой ажиллаж чадаагүй гэх шүүмжлэл дагалддаг. Марк Ноубл спортын захирлын хувиар багийг удирдах бэлтгэл ажлыг хариуцаж байгаа энэ үед Скотт Паркерын тактик Вест Хэмийн тоглолтын хэв маягийг хэрхэн өөрчлөх нь анхаарал татаж байна.
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“I am always under pressure, every day,” Nuno Espirito Santo said in the wake of Saturday’s 3-1 loss to West Brom. Not anymore, he’s not.
An optimistic outlook on his removal as West Ham coach is that it offers respite. Respite from that pressure, which has never truly waned in his 13 months in charge. It might seem a ruthless move by the east London club to fire him “so early” into the season, but West Ham were right to be ruthless.
But let’s not forget that the Championship season is already a quarter of the way done, and true ruthlessness would have entailed sacking the Portuguese over the summer, after he failed to stop West Ham from plummeting into the Championship – despite taking over from Graham Potter in late September.
The former Nottingham Forest and Tottenham coach never truly steadied the ship in the Premier League. There was barely even a new-manager bounce to be buoyant about, never a moment when Hammers fans could breathe easily, and even the seas of the second tier (which he navigated so well by winning the league with Wolves in 2017/18) proved too choppy this time around.
That is not to say his West Ham side have been disastrous this season, but with immediate promotion essential from a financial standpoint – and in order to keep the best of this squad together – six wins, four draws, and three losses were never going to instal adequate confidence. Eighth place, one quarter of the way through the season, is too risky a spot.
It is okay to drop points intermittently in such a long, arduous campaign, but the move to sack Nuno was motivated by West Ham’s fear of those points practically spilling out underneath them, like marbles.
It would, of course, have been nice for fans to see a move not motivated by fear; perhaps a change in the summer would have felt harsh, but it would have been proactive, and there is an argument it would have felt encouraging in a different sense.
On the topic of encouragement, West Ham’s free-scoring start to the season was a refreshing sight after recent times at London Stadium, and they remain the highest-scoring team in the division, but their goal difference has already been matched.
And for Nuno, 52, and his players, the issue has not just been conceding too many goals, but also the timing of those errors: they have conceded first in nine out of their 16 games in all competitions. That has signaled a concerning fragility, which has tasked West Ham with fighting back far too often – in a season when many expected them to lead from the front, no less.
Admittedly, there was a degree of naivety to this sentiment. Over the summer, it was all to easy for neutral fans to assume that West Ham would walk the Championship, when supporters of the east London club knew how misguided these claims were. You need look no further than West Ham’s previous outing in the Championship, in 2011/12, when they let a top-two finish slip away before going life and death with Blackpool in the play-off final.
Again, that is far too risky a spot this time around, and cannot be justified when you own the most-expensive squad in the league (at an estimated £282m, with the £18m gap to Wolves proving substantial at this level).
There is surely greater quality at West Ham than any other club in the Championship, and some observers will feel a coach would not need to get too much right to promote the Hammers. In that regard, Nuno was doing too much wrong.
With Scott Parker immediately emerging as the frontrunner to replace him perhaps the conversation can move away from risk.But only in the short-term, you would think.
Parker, a former Hammer, secured promotion with Fulham, Bournemouth and Burnley in his first season in charge of each club. That record is remarkable. It is simply a shame the stories didn’t end there. Fulham and Burnley were immediately relegated in their following seasons, while Parker left Bournemouth by the end of August after a shocking start to life in the Premier League.
Of course, as a West Ham fan, you might not care to look that far ahead. The priority is purely promotion to the Premier League.
Moreover, a feel-good factor could stem from the nostalgia of Parker’s return. To quote a great modern sketch by Exploding Heads: “He knows the club. He knows the ground… even though it’s different than when he was there.”
In all seriousness, there would be genuine appreciation towards the former midfielder,who won the fan-vote Hammer of the Year award three years in a row. Fans might hope fortunes have been hiding in plain sight.
“Mr West Ham” Mark Noble played alongside the 46-year-old at Upton Park and is now sporting director (he will oversee preparations for Wednesday’s game versus Cardiff). Would Noble and Parker have the chemistry in the office that they had on the pitch? Well, it’s worth noting that they were relegated together in 2011.
Against what you might assume, they would also be unlikely to settle the debate about the “West Ham Way” (chiefly, whether it even exists). While West Ham have scored an unusually high number of goals under Nuno this season, Parker’s M.O. is clean sheets;that would mark a jarring about-turn, stylistically.
But maybe an about-turn is what West Ham need. They are heading in the wrong direction, even if slowly, and slip-ups cannot be allowed to become a full-on skid. West Ham have problems higher up than in the managerial seat, but finding someone to fill it is the only immediate concern.
