Seeing as they haven’t got one, at least there should be no danger of Nuno Espirito Santo falling out with his latest club over their transfer strategy.
That is pretty much the only measure by which West Ham’s new manager can seriously feel he has moved in the right direction since exiting Nottingham Forest. The baptism has been as shocking as it has shambolic.
It is statistically the worst start after four games by any permanent manager in the club’s history.
Had you not watched a minute of it, a summary would suffice: both full-backs playing on the wrong side, a midfield of Tomas Soucek and Andy Irving, and Lucas Paqueta unsurprisingly has now had enough and will try to leave as soon as possible.
The team selections have had a distinct “Lee Carsley against Greece” vibe, except Carsley was an interim manager not expecting to be in place for very long. Then again…
To give Nuno a little grace, he is still experimenting. By the end of the defeat to Leeds United, he was closer to his best XI, albeit 90 minutes too late. Five players have been playing out of position. It took Graham Potter two games to ditch the three-at-the-back but Nuno has already shifted between two different systems.
From Julen Lopetegui to Potter and now to Nuno, West Ham are inexplicably finding innovative ways to fail.
The undying loyalty shown to James Ward-Prowse under the previous manager is gone. Unsurprisingly, given their relationship at Forest, Nuno has axed him from the squad altogether; an assertive but dangerous move with a popular member of the dressing room. Potter would not bring back Jean-Clair Todibo to replace Maximilian Kilman – now Nuno has them both at centre-back, together.
Soucek-Irving was a disaster against Brentford and nothing changed against Leeds. Brentford, incidentally, went all in on an unproven but progressive manager in Keith Andrews. Nuno was supposed to be the safe option.
Under a coach renowned for defensive organisation, set pieces have not improved. West Ham have conceded nine – three times more than any other Premier League side – this season. Potter’s answer was to drop Mads Hermansen; Nuno has no such obvious ace.
There is always a danger that once he has decided on his team, he will stick with it. At Tottenham Hotspur he had a clear “A” team for big games and a “B” team for the cups, which meant the “B” team were stripped of any motivation to get into the main XI. Callum Wilson is already feeling the pinch, completely frozen out until Oliver Scarles fractured his collarbone and the shape had to change.
So it is hard to know what West Ham’s floor looks like. How bad can it get? Relegation is a serious prospect – they are 19th, with their one win coming against Forest (who were, at the time, managed by Nuno).
The toxicity around the club – the board, the stadium, the signings – is all encompassing. The Conference League papered over it for a time but even David Moyes could not dine out on its goodwill forever – he was sacked not just because of the football, but after winning five of his last 25 matches.
Nuno has the potential to be different. He has come at West Ham with fresh eyes, bringing on 22-year-old Freddie Potts three times. Mohamadou Kante feels like an untapped resource. Crysencio Summerville has shown glimpses of quality. The substitutes did enough against Leeds that they should be in contention to start at home to Newcastle.
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None of that is enough on its own to lift the apathy around the husk of the London Stadium. The recruitment has been so poor that both Tim Steidten and Kyle Macaulay have gone, leaving David Sullivan with more control than ever.
It is easy to see why, like Ange Postecoglou, Nuno rushed back. Management is a drug and withdrawal leads to the scrapheap. But as Postecoglou could tell him, getting your return wrong gets you compared to Liz Truss, not trophies in your second season.
That little hope which Nuno’s arrival brought did not take much extinguishing. Where he has fixed Potter’s errors, West Ham have impressively found a string of new and interesting things which can go wrong.
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