West Ham fans have been left scratching their heads over Nuno Espirito Santo’s utterly baffling team selections — and now a wild theory has emerged about the real reason behind them.
With pressure mounting and confusion deepening, supporters are convinced there’s more to Nuno Espirito Santo’s strange line-ups than meets the eye.
Football fans love a conspiracy theory, especially when things are going against their club.
West Ham supporters are no different and there’s plenty going against their club right now.
The Hammers are in deep relegation danger after their abysmal start to the new season.
West Ham are now stuck in the bottom three of the Premier League after three consecutive defeats under new boss Nuno.
Bizarre scenes unfolding at West Ham under Nuno
Only back-to-back wins would be enough to get the Hammers out of the bottom three right now – and even that would be dependent on results elsewhere.
With a quarter of the season gone, West Ham are looking like relegation certainties as things stand never mind candidates.
Nuno was a breath of fresh air when he arrived to replace the hapless and uninspiring Graham Potter last month.
His passion, rhetoric in interviews and press conferences, ruthless team selection and no-nonsense approach brought back memories of David Moyes.
But it hasn’t lasted long.
After really positive signs in his first two games at Everton and Arsenal, Nuno appears to have quite literally lost the plot.
That is the only way to describe what has unfolded at West Ham in the last week.
Now there’s a wild new theory on the real reason Nuno is naming inexplicable West Ham line-ups.
After a fine performance in a 1-1 draw at Everton, a game West Ham could and probably should have won, Nuno’s side then showed resilience, solidity and aggression in a 2-0 defeat at the Emirates.
Those games really gave the new head coach and team something to build on heading into the October international break.
Hopes were high given Nuno had 16 days working with most of his squad.
Wild theory on real reason for Nuno’s inexplicable West Ham line-ups
But what took place at home against Brentford this time last week was an abomination surpassing anything seen under Potter, Julen Lopetegui or even going all the way back to Avram Grant – the last time West Ham were relegated.
Nuno dropped two of his best and most dynamic players in El Hadji Malick Diouf and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
He also left out Soungoutou Magassa despite his impressive display at Everton.
Nuno played with no striker and randomly started Ollie Scarles and Andy Irving out of absolutely nowhere.
To make matters worse he played left-back Scarles at right-back.
West Ham fans were left in shock at the line-up and Nuno was lambasted over the changes, which flopped spectacularly.
The Portuguese had to make a swathe of substitutions but they were lucky not to lose by seven or eight to Brentford in the end.
When the Hammers then travelled to face Leeds, most assumed Nuno would come to his senses and play his best available players in their positions.
Unbelievably he stuck more or less with the same side, with Irving starting again and Scarles at right-back.
This time Wan-Bissaka and Diouf were back in but the former as a right-sided centre-back.
Mateus Fernandes was dropped this time with Magassa and Callum Wilson ignored again.
When West Ham went 2-0 down after just 13 minutes, Nuno was savaged by fans.
The very strange situation has sparked an interesting conspiracy theory involving the club’s majority owner.
One of the biggest shocks of Nuno’s reign thus far has come off the pitch.
For his first two games Nuno was assisted by a clutch of West Ham’s Academy coaches including the likes of Mark Robson and Steve Potts.
Fans loved the fact Nuno was willing to lean on the Academy staff for his first two games.
The assumption was that Nuno would then bring in his own staff during the October break.
Did Hammers renege on Nuno staff to leave him looking for quick exit?
Instead, West Ham announced the Academy staff had been appointed full-time.
The unusual situation raised eyebrows.
And watching Nuno barely consult or acknowledge the backroom team while he stood on the sidelines watching the Leeds defeat unfold has added further fuel to one particular theory.
In his first game Nuno named a team largely agreeable to most supporters, the side played well and arguably should have won.
Since then he has taken leave of his senses.
But is there more to this than meets the eye?
When Nuno realised his relationship with Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis was beyond repair, he deliberately spoke out in the press to provoke being sacked.
Now some West Ham fans believe Nuno may already be tanking and that it is because David Sullivan and the board have reneged on an agreement to bring in his own backroom staff.
Paying to get staff out of a club can often be expensive and Sullivan is known for refusing to pay compensation to bring in managers and staff.
There is no legitimate reason behind the host of random and bizarre decisions Nuno has made of late.
Is this Nuno’s way of acting out to try and push the owners to sack him already – landing a pay-off in the process?
Has he realised there’s no saving West Ham, especially without his own staff on board, and he’s looking for a get-out?
It may not be as far-fetched as it sounds, especially as it comes at the same time as certain journalists are being briefed West Ham will not be sacking Nuno after just one month in east London.
Stranger things have happened in football.
Although Nuno’s decisions – and the fact he has not been joined by any of his own people – are testing the boundaries of that particular saying.
