From an outside perspective, the frustration levelled towards Nuno Espirito Santo by a growing faction of West Ham United supporters may feel pretty premature, despite a run of three successive Premier League defeats.
Monday represented the one-month anniversary of Nuno Espirito Santo’s appointment at the London Stadium.
In those four weeks, he has overseen just four matches, while the October international break denied him some valuable time on the training pitch with some of the club’s most important players. See Jarrod Bowen, Lucas Paqueta, Mateus Fernandes, El Hadji Malick Diouf.
The Portuguese also inherited a West Ham United side stuck in the Premier League’s relegation zone, with three points from a possible 15. That Nuno felt the need to ask the Hammers fans to support the team to the best of their ability, in the midst of a boycott towards owner David Sullivan, also spoke volumes about the bitter atmosphere on the terraces.
An atmosphere which can be traced back long, long before his appointment.
Yet, the man in the dugout is not without blame. Nuno’s line-up at Leeds bordered on the ‘inexplicable’ once again. Numerous players out of position, and many a summer signing stuck on the bench. If the 1-1 draw at Everton and the valiant defeat by Arsenal felt like positive early signs, then successive losses at the hands of Brentford and Leeds gave the fans an unwanted case of deja vu.
The Brentford display, in particular, was as bad as anything served up under Potter.
Yet, somehow, almost unbelievably, it could be worse. At least West Ham aren’t Wolves, though they are not far off, point-wise. And at least Nuno has not found himself being escorted away from a furious horde of fans, as was seemingly the case with Vitor Pereira when Wolverhampton Wanderers’ own disastrous campaign took a turn for the worse at home to Burnley.
Vitor Pereira in a Wolves nightmare after West Ham United talks
When fixtures in October are being described as ‘six pointers’, then you know you’re in trouble. Lyle Foster’s 95th minute winner for Burnley, at a stunned Molineux, means Wolves have as many points on the board now as they did this time 12 months ago.
Predecessor Gary O’Neill was sacked in December 2024. Vitor Pereira, despite signing a new three year deal only weeks ago, may be lucky to last that long if things continue as they are.
Hammers News reported back in September, via chief football correspondent Graeme Bailey, that vice-chair Karren Brady held talks with ‘super-agent’ Jorge Mendes regarding the availability of the man in the Molineux hotseat.
Pereira would ink a three-year contract extension in the immediate aftermath. And West Ham quickly turned to another manager in the Mendes stable.
“I am told that Jorge Mendes spoke to Karren Brady about Vitor Pereira, and there was interest from West Ham,” Bailey said at the time.
“However, that tied in with the fact that Mendes was already speaking to Wolves about a new deal. It was bad timing for West Ham, really. Soon after, Mendes finalised Pereira’s new deal at Molineux.”
Between them, Nuno and Pereira have recorded one point and zero wins from a combined 13 Premier League matches in charge of West Ham and Wolves this term.
Yet, as the travelling West Ham fans aired their frustration towards David Sullivan and the aforementioned Brady rather than Nuno Espirito Santo during Friday’s rain-soaked 2-1 defeat by Leeds, Pereira was serenaded by a vicious chorus of ‘sacked in the morning’ by the Old Gold terraces two days later.
They were wrong, of course. Pereira would not be handed his P45 on Monday morning. But with that Burnley debacle seeing Wolves sink into the sewers underneath a town called ‘rock bottom’ – theirs is the joint-fourth worst start ever made to a Premier League campaign – an ‘official statement’ accompanied by a photo of a corner flag feels like only a matter of time.
Pereira reacts as fans chant ‘sacked in the morning’ at Molineux
Pereira, the gap between his side and 17th standing at six points, issued an impassioned riposte at full-time.
Like his similarly relegation-threatened Iberian – Nuno is determined to ‘pull the fans back together’ and create unity between players and supporters – Pereira is a man pleading for time and patience.
Not only from the board, but from the stands too. On Sunday’s evidence, Wolves fans confronting players in car parks and aiming all manner of unprintable words in his direction, Vitor Pereira is fighting a losing battle.
“We understand the frustration of the people and supporters but what I must say, if we fight united with them, we can win games and compete and achieve our targets. Without them, it is impossible,” says a man desperate to save what is his 15th job in 21 years of senior management.
“If we win two or three games in a row, things will change.
“Two months ago, [the fans] sang my name, because together with the work we did last season, we are competing in the Premier League and not Championship. Now, they sing my name to sack me.”
