Self-deprecation and football go hand in hand, so no VAR in the Championship is one positive West Ham fans are talking up.
Sunday’s mammoth decision to disallow Callum Wilson’s 95th-minute equaliser propelled Arsenal closer to the Premier League title and left West Ham staring at a first relegation since 2011.
Social media has seen a flurry of examples where Arsenal’s players have imeded opposition goalkeepers this season. It has made for a loud 24 hours. But cut through the noise and it is easy to overlook how West Ham landed themselves in this mess.
Fans have been witnessing this demise for years and feel powerless to change it despite numerous protests this season. The defeat to Arsenal fell exactly 10 to the day since after West Ham’s last game at Upton Park. The switch to the London Stadium was meant to signal ambition, but the period has shown just how stuck they are under owner David Sullivan.
Bournemouth, Brentford and Brighton are all competing for Europe with sustainable financial models. That stings West Ham fans, who watched their side finish sixth in 2021 and then win the 2023 Conference League.
That trophy should have been a platform but now reads like an anomaly that glosses over the direction in which West Ham were already going. They are closer to replicating Leicester City than Bournemouth.
Financially, they are a mess. West Ham posted £104m losses for 2024-25 and said player sales were essential this summer “to have sufficient liquidity”. The board added “additional funding” from shareholders could be required.
In terms of personnel, they are a mess too. Baroness Karren Brady stepped down as vice-chair last month. “Her legacy is deeply damaging,” West Ham’s Fan Advisory Board said, noting Brady’s role in moving the club to London Stadium and the subsequent “dilution of identity, atmosphere and belonging”.
The ill-fated spell of Tim Steidten as technical director also deteriorated matters. He arrived straight after the Conference League win, departed in February 2025, and during his one-and-a-half years he merely created division to the point of being banned from the dressing room by then manager David Moyes, whom Steidten was looking to replace.
After Moyes, Julen Lopetegui did not last a year and neither did Graham Potter. Nuno Espirito Santo arrived in September with the club 19th.
Nuno has enjoyed fleeting spells of momentum – they are 10th in the table this calendar year – but the damage was already done when he got there.
It has been misstep after misstep in the transfer market. Gone is the influence and class of Lucas Paqueta. So too Mohammed Kudus. The Declan Rice money (£105m) from 2023 helped fund a £126m backing of Lopetegui on eight players the following summer – somehow, West Ham have still ended up with the third-worst defence in the league.
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Yet nothing sums up their expensive failures quite like their ongoing search for a striker. Gianluca Scamacca cost £30.5m in 2022 and left a year later. Niclas Fullkrug joined for £27m in 2024 and is currently on loan at Atalanta. Pablo and Taty Castellanos were signed in the winter and have four league goals between them (all Castellanos), while Jarrod Bowen is the top scorer with eight.
In short: it’s one big, dysfunctional mess, and that is down to Sullivan. On his watch, club after club have leapfrogged them.
And when combining the ambition of numerous Championship clubs with West Ham’s need to sell, should they go down then bouncing back will be a challenge. With two games left to go, a dark cloud hangs over a stadium the supporters don’t like. It could be about to pour.
