This is not a West Ham United side particularly overloaded with so-called ‘proven’ Premier League talent. Graham Potter’s summer purge made sure of that.
In the space of one day at the beginning of July, Michail Antonio, Aaron Cresswell, Vladimir Coufal, Danny Ings and Lukasz Fabianski all saw their contracts expire.
Kurt Zouma and Emerson Palmieri would also depart.
Now, while the time was obviously right to move on from a number of these veterans – Zouma left CFR Cluj this week after a brutal injury-ruined spell while Ings has scored only once for Sheffield United – the downside is that so many veteran departures created a West Ham United dressing room relatively short of leaders and experience.
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“What West Ham miss are characters like Mark [Noble] and Declan [Rice]. Their leadership was important to the changing room, and other players like Aaron, Micky and Angelo [Ogbonna, who departed in 2024] had a huge influence in the changing room,” Coufal told The Athletic in November.
“They were the old guns.”
So as West Ham reportedly show an interest in the likes of Eric Dier, Ethan Pinnock and now Jamaal Lascelles – a trio of 30-something centre-backs with over 550 combined Premier League appearances – it is safe to assume Nuno Espirito Santo does not share Graham Potter’s view that experience is overrated.
Eric Dier’s Monaco stats may concern West Ham United
According to talkSPORT, Monaco are happy to let Eric Dier leave the Principality this month. Brentford stalwart Ethan Pinnock was linked last week. Former Newcastle captain Jamaal Lascelles is the latest to be mentioned in conjunction with a potential mid-season switch to the London Stadium.
So while West Ham also have much younger options on their list – primarily Charlie Cresswell but also Tiago Gabriel and Roggerio Nyakossi – interest in Dier, Pinnock and Lascelles certainly creates the impression that Nuno is determined to write the wrongs of last summer’s OAP purge.
Dier worked with Nuno briefly during the manager’s short-lived spell at Tottenham in 2021.
Yet, Nuno was also the key to Max Kilman’s rise at Wolves. If there were any hopes that Nuno’s arrival at West Ham would put Kilman back on the right path, his ongoing defensive blunders show that the problems run deeper than the man in the dugout.
When you consider that Kilman has won only 18 per cent of his aerial duels this season, in addition to Jean-Clair Todibo’s 13 per cent, it is clear to see why West Ham have conceded so many goals from corners and crosses.
On closer inspection, though, Dier’s record is even worse. The former Tottenham, Everton and Sporting Lisbon has won only nine per cent of his aerial duels for Monaco this term.
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Former Tottenham powerhouse Dier is a risk the Hammers may be better off avoiding
Now, some context is required here. Dier has started only six of Monaco’s Ligue 1 matches.
During a surprisingly effective loan spell at Bayern Munich in 2024/25, Dier actually won 64 per cent of his aerial duels.
When he has played this season, Dier has often been used for his ball-playing, line-splitting talents more than anything else. He ranks in the 95th percentile across Europe for passes completed. In a sense, there are similarities between the role Dier is playing at Monaco and the role Kilman played under Nuno at Wolves.
In other words, pretty much the opposite of what is required right now.
Kilman was almost a defender-turned-playmaker at Molineux. The onus for the more physical stuff fell on Craig Dawson and Willy Boly. Now Dier, at 6ft 2ins and having proven himself to be a fine ‘penalty box’ defender in previous lifetimes, may have the experience and the adaptability to play both roles in Nuno’s team.
That of a ball-playing, line-breaking centre-half, and also as a physically-dominant, aerially-imposing powerhouse.
But with relegation looming, and West Ham conceding an alarming number of goals from headers, signing a centre-back who wins fewer aerial duels on average than both Kilman and Todibo is unlikely to boost the confidence of a fanbase fearing the worst.
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