Alphonse Areola has appeared to question under-pressure manager Nuno Espirito Santo following a journalist’s claim of growing unrest behind the scenes at West Ham.
The comments will inevitably raise eyebrows among supporters, adding further intrigue to an already tense atmosphere as pressure continues to build around performances, woeful results and a lack of leadership and direction at West Ham.
The Hammers are staring down the barrel of relegation from the Premier League – and it has been coming for two years.
West Ham’s form dropped off a cliff at the turn of the year between 2023 and 2024 and has never recovered.
The malaise set in under David Moyes and from January 2024 to now, West Ham have won just 19 of their 77 Premier League matches.
That kind of record is begging to see a club relegated.
Nuno under pressure after West Ham shambles at Wolves
West Ham have their fewest points at this stage of a season since they were last relegated in 2011.
Even back then under the hapless joke figure Avram Grant, the Hammers had amassed 21 points by this stage.
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West Ham are seven points off that as they sit effectively five points adrift of Forest in the relegation zone with 18 games to play.
While Moyes, Julen Lopetegui, Tim Steidten, Graham Potter and of course the owner have all played a part in the regression to this point, Nuno Espirito Santo is the latest making headlines for his failure to turn things around.
The shambolic 3-0 defeat to Wolves is deemed the worst performance from a West Ham side since a 6-0 hiding at Reading 19 years ago in January 2007.
West Ham’s board has told under-fire Nuno what is needed as they raged about the Wolves debacle.
The damaging defeat, off the back of the failure to beat either Fulham or Brighton at home, has sparked fresh speculation Nuno could be sacked.
That would see the Irons looking for their fourth manager in just over 12 months.
It is a farcical situation which proves West Ham’s problems go way deeper than whoever sits in the dugout.
That being said, Nuno has not helped himself at times since taking over from Potter.
The Portuguese has made some bizarre selection decisions in crucial games which have proved costly.
Journalist makes major West Ham unrest claim
Eyebrows were raised by the performance at Wolves for multiple reasons.
Not only because West Ham were playing the team on course to be crowned the worst in Premier League history, who have not won a league match all season.
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But because Forest had lost at Villa earlier in the day, offering West Ham a golden chance to climb out of the bottom three with back-to-back wins over Wolves and the Tricky Trees.
West Ham’s first half display at Wolves has been labelled the worst ever seen from a Premier League side by great Alan Shearer.
The Hammers did not look like a team playing for the manager as Wolves ran them ragged.
Rob Edwards made Nuno look foolish tactically.
Now one of West Ham’s best – and indeed only – performing players right now has delivered an assessment which is damning his manager.
Alphonse Areola has questioned Nuno after a journalist made a major West Ham unrest claim.
Journalist Jacob Steinberg has strong contacts at the London Stadium.
He has claimed in The Guardian that Nuno is in danger of losing the support of West Ham’s squad because of concerns over his man-management, team selections, confusing training methods and tactics.
Steinberg also claims Nuno has barely spoken to some players since arriving three months ago.
The reporter even claims club sources describe Nuno as ‘distant and uncommunicative on a day-to-day basis’.
Areola questions Nuno after latest West Ham defeat
Against the backdrop of those damning claims, Hammers star Areola has said something rather interesting in an honest assessment of the Wolves shambles.
West Ham found themselves on the backfoot from the off with Wolves scoring after just four minutes.
And Areola has told the club’s official website that Nuno did not have the team ready to step up to the challenge, adding that game was already gone before the manager addressed things.
“We didn’t start the game well, and we conceded almost straight away,” Areola said.
“Then, we conceded again, and it’s always hard to come back when you’ve conceded twice. I think the first goal was always going to be important, but the way we reacted to that was disappointing.
“We came here to win the game and we didn’t step up well enough in the first half.
“Obviously we had to do what we could in the second half, and we showed some character, but overall it wasn’t enough to work ourselves back into the game.”
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