There were only nine September days between Nuno Espirito Santo signing his contract at West Ham United and Vitor Pereira putting pen to paper on a three-year extension at Premier League rivals Wolves.
If the events of matchday ten are anything to go by, that may be one of the last things the two clubs have in common this season.
Because while Nuno’s West Ham finally came of age against Newcastle – a 3-1 victory as deserved as the scoreline suggests – Wolverhampton Wanderers are winless, directionless and, as of Sunday, managerless.
Of course, football is a fickle mistress. Lose at home to Burnley next week and that Newcastle trouncing will feel like another false dawn for West Ham United. Whoever replaces Pereira at Molineux, meanwhile, could bring about an immediate improvement, even if ‘new manager bounces’ have been few and far between in the Premier League of late.
But after vice-chair Karren Brady held talks with Jorge Mendes about potentially bringing Pereira to East London – they would hire another Gestifute client in Nuno Espirito Santo shortly after – the respective performance of both clubs in their most recent outings suggests that a greater gap could soon open up between them at the bottom of the table.
The Athletic, meanwhile, reports that Vitor Pereira was the reason why a certain Kyle Walker-Peters ended up wearing claret and blue rather than old gold.
Vitor Pereira rejected West Ham United’s Kyle Walker-Peters at Wolves
West Ham snapped up the England international on a free transfer when his Southampton contract expired in July.
Like Callum Wilson, this was not a particularly thrilling acquisition.
But with the Hammers short of depth in key areas and having bid farewell to so many experienced campaigners – Vladimir Coufal, Michail Antonio, Kurt Zouma, Aaron Cresswell, Danny Ings and [briefly] Lukasz Fabianski all departed – Walker-Peters represented a low-cost, low-risk, solid-if-not-spectacular piece of business.
In hindsight, one wonders how Pereira and Wolves’ sporting director Domenico Teti are reflecting now on Wolves’ own summer window.
The Athletic add that Pereira and Teti opted to pursue what they felt were more ‘athletic, powerful’ additions from foreign clubs, rather than homegrown players with plenty of Premier League experience.
In addition to Walker-Peters, the departed Wolves boss reportedly turned his nose up at Josh Brownhill – the former Burnley captain who now plays for Al-Shabab in Saudi Arabia – and Fulham winger Harry Wilson.
The irony will not have been lost on Pereira as Wilson hammered one of the final nails into his coffin on Saturday, curling home the second of Fulham’s three goals at Craven Cottage.
Ki-Jana Hoever, out of favour not so long ago, started in what could have been Walker-Peters right-back role in West London. Again, he looked well below Premier League standard.
While those heading Wolves recruitment drive may have felt that the younger, quicker Jackson Tchatchoua and David Moller Wolfe would prove to be better long-term acquisitions – the duo arrived for a combined £21 million from Hellas Verona and AZ Alkmaar – the versatility, experience and reliability of Walker-Peters would surely have come in a lot more handy from a short-term perspective.
Gary O’Neil withdraws from Wolves race after West Ham chose Nuno Espirito Santo
Walker-Peters has featured in each of West Ham’s last nine Premier League matches. And though he has only started one of the last four – Aaron Wan-Bissaka is back in the XI and provided a reminder of his Hammer of the Year-winning qualities versus Newcastle – his ability to play on both flanks is likely to come in very handy, especially during a packed festive schedule.
As for Wolves, their hopes of a stunning turnaround in fortunes may rest at the fingertips of Erik ten Hag or perhaps Middlesbrough boss Rob Edwards.
Gary O’Neil was linked with a return to West Ham before Nuno took the seat vacated by Graham Potter.
According to Sky Sports, O’Neil is no longer in contention for the Wolverhampton Wanderers job either. After holding talks with the bottom-of-the-table outfit, he withdrew from the race on Monday.
