{"id":351978,"date":"2026-01-04T17:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T17:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/351978\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T17:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T17:09:07","slug":"nuno-sack-stance-becomes-clear-with-hammers-squad-morale-rapidly-deteriorating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/351978\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuno sack stance becomes clear with Hammers&#8217; squad morale &#8216;rapidly deteriorating&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nuno Espirito Santo is losing the confidence of the West Ham dressing room with squad morale \u2018rapidly deteriorating\u2019, according to reports.<\/p>\n<p>The Hammers sacked Graham Potter at the end of September and replaced the Englishman with former Nottingham Forest and Wolves boss Nuno.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Portuguese head coach has won just two of his 15 matches in charge of the east London club with <a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.planetfootball.com\/lists-and-rankings\/next-west-ham-manager-replace-nuno-espirito-santo-ranking-five-favourites\" target=\"_blank\">pressure building on the 51-year-old to turn it around<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/west-ham-united\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">West Ham<\/a> lost 3-0 to the Premier League\u2019s bottom side Wolves on Saturday in an embarrassing defeat for the Hammers and they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/premier-league\/table\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">remain in the relegation zone<\/a>, four points adrift of safety.<\/p>\n<p>That result led to Nuno coming out and apologise to the West Ham fans who travelled to Wolverhampton and hit out at the \u201cembarrassing\u201d first-half display.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/nuno-espirito-santo-apologises-west-ham-embarrassing-defeat-wolves\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Speaking to BBC Sport, Nuno said<\/a>: \u201cNobody expected us to play so bad. A real poor performance today.<\/p>\n<p>READ:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/nuno-sack-certain-but-west-ham-cannot-axe-boss-wolves\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nuno sack sealed but West Ham have already given 47 million reasons why he must stay for relegation<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wish I could answer properly [why]. Now is the moment for us to reflect and think are we doing everything we can? Do we realise the situation we are in? And how to get out of this situation and improve. There are things that need to be addressed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe first half was embarrassing. I apologise to our fans who travelled. This is not what we want to show them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The January transfer window is in full flow and the situation could turn around quickly if West Ham can bring in some transfers to ease the pressure on Nuno.<\/p>\n<p>When asked about transfers, Nuno replied:\u00a0\u201cIt is a complex situation. The club is working on that situation [transfers]. We have problems in terms of squad and options but that is not a justification for what we did in the first half \u2013 the mistakes we made, the lack of effort\u2026 it was very bad. It was about mistakes we made over and over again that was really poor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNottingham Forest will be a tough game but now is about reacting and transforming and improving.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>READ:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/premier-league-player-power-rankings-haaland-salah\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Premier League player power rankings: Van Dijk climbs as Gabriel returns, Ekitike drops<\/a><\/p>\n<p>And <a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/jan\/04\/nuno-espirito-santo-losing-support-west-ham-squad\" target=\"_blank\">reporter for The Guardian, Jacob Steinberg, understands<\/a> \u2018that the mood at the London Stadium is rapidly deteriorating\u2019 with Nuno \u2018in danger of losing the support of West Ham\u2019s squad because of concerns over his man-management and tactics\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Steinberg adds: \u2018Multiple sources with knowledge of the situation have described Nuno as distant and uncommunicative on a day-to-day basis, while it is understood that there is frustration over confusing training methods and team selections. Morale is slipping and what is perceived as a lack of clear communication has left some players feeling that they have no way of forcing their way into the Portuguese\u2019s plans.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>It is claimed that Nuno has \u2018barely spoken to some players\u2019 since joining in September with some players in his West Ham squad \u2018feel alienated\u2019, while others have been played out of position.<\/p>\n<p>Against Wolves, it is understood that the Portuguese head coach \u2018said little to rouse his players when they found themselves 3-0 down at half-time\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Despite that, the West Ham \u2018board remain reluctant to make their second sacking of a disastrous season\u2019 after backing Nuno in the transfer market.<\/p>\n<p>Steinberg continues: \u2018Yet the fact that West Ham\u2019s recruitment is being led by Nuno\u2019s requests is seen as a sign that the club are not about to make an imminent change.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>READ NEXT:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/feature-worst-player-every-premier-league-club\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Worst player at every Prem club in 2025\/26: Gyokeres, Yoro, Baleba, Savinho, Elanga\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nuno Espirito Santo is losing the confidence of the West Ham dressing room with squad morale \u2018rapidly deteriorating\u2019,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,348,50,45733,221,101,56,54,55,25673],"class_list":["post-351978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-home-page","tag-news","tag-nuno-espirito-santo","tag-premier-league","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-west-ham-united"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}