Inside the disastrous summer that broke West Ham

Jarrod Bowen, of all people.

If any further proof was needed to show how broken West Ham have become, it was the sight of their captain, talisman and rare beacon of hope being dragged away by his team-mates after confronting an angry supporter following yet another defeat.

The man who scored the winning goal to secure a European trophy, the man who signed a seven-year contract extension in 2023 without a release clause, and the man who wanted to carry on leading the club beyond the summer, despite their dismal season, with no desire to go all Alexander Isak.

If Bowen can feel the brunt of it all after West Ham crashed out of the League Cup on Tuesday night, there is no one exempt from the fury. It shows, more than anything, just how bad it’s become.

When Graham Potter snapped at the journalist in the front row on Saturday when asked the simple question of whether it’s too early to say that West Ham are in a relegation battle after their 5-1 loss to Chelsea, it was difficult not to think back to the man who sat in the same chair seven months earlier.

How different that Potter was, being unveiled as the club’s new manager in January, all smiles and positivity, after nearly two years out of work, primed for a new challenge and declaring (more than once) that the opportunity to take charge of West Ham was like ‘Christmas for adults’.

How positive that Potter was, how recharged and refreshed and ready to go. Not anymore. A tetchy, prickly Potter has faced the cameras in recent weeks, his hackles raised by the gentlest of enquiries. West Ham can do that to you.

Because the answer is no, by the way. It’s not too early to say West Ham are in a relegation battle, not for anyone who has watched their opening three games and the manner in which they have capitulated. Three defeats, 11 goals conceded, bottom of the Premier League and out of the cup.

West Ham are at the foot of the tree and unless the club do some serious business in the final week of the transfer window, they will still be there by the time Santa next pops down the chimney.

Behind the scenes, the finger pointing has already begun. Co-owner David Sullivan has been keen to lay the blame for West Ham’s recent struggles at the door of those in the dugout, for failing to get the most out of the players at their disposal. Not for the decisions that brought them here.

As Daily Mail Sport reported over the weekend, Potter’s job is safe for now even if the diabolical start has thrust him under enormous pressure just seven months into a two-and-a-half year deal, one that does not include a break clause.

Sullivan does not like to sack managers mid-season if he can help it, and certainly not if the club are sailing as close to the PSR wind as they claimed at the start of the summer, when they said they had to sell Mohammed Kudus to Tottenham for £55million before they could buy anyone.

It’s clear Potter is not doing well. He’s earned fewer points from the same number of games as predecessor Julen Lopetegui managed before being sacked. Saturday’s result meant Potter has the worst home record of any manager after 10 Premier League games in the club’s history.

Over the first two Premier League weekends, no side faced more shots on target, conceded more goals, or won fewer tackles. Only Leeds won fewer duels. Only Wolves recorded a lower expected goals (xG) and created fewer ‘big chances’, defined by Opta as ones that a player should reasonably be expected to score. Unsurprisingly, no one conceded more of the latter than West Ham.

Why keep playing with wing-backs when that leaves West Ham outnumbered in midfield, his weakest area of the pitch? What does young prospect Freddie Potts have to do to get a start after an impressive pre-season?

Few fanbases feed off emotion quite like West Ham’s, so the sight of a manager stood with his arms folded and looking at the floor with their side 3-0 down at home to a London rival after 34 minutes will always struggle to convince them he can turn things around.

But, at the same time, that Christmas present Potter inherited back in January was one of the oldest and most unbalanced squads in the Premier League. He has defenders who can’t defend, midfielders who can’t run and a total lack of leaders from back to front and top to bottom. And yet little has been done to fix it.

In their defeat by Wolves, it was a half-hearted challenge from Guido Rodriguez that gave away the first-half penalty before yet another late collapse. Once Wolves equalised in the 82nd minute, it was no surprise to see Jorgen Stand Larsen score the winner two minutes later.

Sources close to the dressing room insist the players are still on-board with Potter’s plans, are hurting and desperate to turn it around but the issue is they simply aren’t good enough.

People often wonder how West Ham can have the 17th biggest revenue in the world, according to the latest Deloitte Money League, but are constantly out-performed by the likes of Bournemouth and Brighton and Brentford.

The answer is because those clubs know who they are and what they need. They have a clear plan and everyone sticks to it.

They don’t have an owner who would snap up Callum Wilson on a free only a year after spending £27m on Niclas Fullkrug, another injury-prone striker in his thirties.

They don’t sign central defender Jean-Clair Todibo on loan and be left obligated to sign him for £33m once the technical director who sanctioned the deal has left, as well as the manager he signed him for, and leave the new man in charge with no choice over whether he wants the player or not.

They don’t sell Declan Rice for £105m and then spend £300m not replacing him. They sell Moises Caicedo and sign Carlos Baleba.

They don’t let the manager bring in his own recruitment team, hire more analysts, then not trust their decisions. They certainly don’t bring in goalkeeper Mads Hermansen for £18m and then panic after two poor performances by trying to bring in another.

Senior sources told Daily Mail Sport over the weekend that the club would now look to bring in goalkeepers and centre backs after conceding three goals from corners against Chelsea.

The club has since revived interest in keeper John Victor, on a potential loan with an option to buy, in a move that clearly undermines Potter and his recruitment team. West Ham had previously agreed a deal with Botafogo for the Brazilian before completing the signing of Hermansen. It didn’t help matters that the club’s other goalkeeper Alphonse Areola also had a shocker against Wolves.

As it happens, the three centre backs that started against Chelsea – Todibo, Max Kilman and Nayef Aguerd – cost a combined £103m and have all been bought within the last three years.

At some point, the person signing all the cheques must have questions to answer.

As Potter put it himself ahead of the Chelsea game: ‘Signing players is easy. It doesn’t mean to say that in six months’ time you’re stuck with a player that’s on too much money, that’s too old and you can’t sell them.’

This was supposed to be the ‘exciting summer’ in which Potter overhauled his squad but, with only days to go of the transfer window, there’s still so much to do. Too much.

They sold Kudus to Spurs for £55m at the start of July but have since only spent £37m in transfer fees on El Hadji Malick Diouf and Hermansen. 

Soungoutou Magassa is on the verge of a £17m move from Monaco. The Hammers also want Southampton’s Matheus Fernandes but are yet to get close to Saints’ asking price. They are exploring a move for Nottingham Forest’s Ibrahim Sangare.

West Ham need some quality, and quickly, because they are in deep, deep trouble. The promoted sides already look to have more about them than the six that came up and went straight back down over the last two seasons.

West Ham have seen from afar that running a club badly enough was enough to take Leicester from an FA Cup and two fifth-placed finishes to the Championship. And that was a side that had Jamie Vardy, James Maddison, Youri Tielemans and Harvey Barnes.

West Ham did it themselves in 2003 with David James, Michael Carrick, Jermain Defoe, Joe Cole and Paolo Di Canio. Both of those sides were ‘too good to go down’. This one isn’t. Three games are more than enough to show you that.