For Nuno Espirito Santo, Callum Wilson is not only West Ham United’s occasional matchwinner, he is also ‘an example’ for all players in his position.
Wilson’s minutes-per-goal rate is higher than that of Mo Salah, Bryan Mbeumo and Antoine Semenyo, to name but three Premier League A-listers.
Of course, his record of a goal every 179 minutes owes as much to his lack of regular starts as it does those evergreen penalty-area instincts.
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The former England international acknowledged the ‘frustration’ regarding his role at West Ham United shortly after pilfering a 92nd minute winner against Everton last weekend.
As things stand, Wilson is the first Hammers striker since Demba Ba to average a goal in over 50 per cent of his starts; six in ten so far.
So, speaking ahead of Saturday’s 3pm kick-off away at Brentford, Nuno Espirito Santo took the time to not only sympathise with the man who puts ‘super’ in ‘supersub’, but to also praise his professionalism and patience.
Nuno explains his Callum Wilson dilemma at West Ham United
“It’s very difficult, sometimes very unfair that we cannot [allow] every player to start the game,” Nuno said during his Thursday press conference.
“Many players deserve more minutes, deserve to play, deserve to start. But our priority is knowing that everybody is important, [everybody knows] the task in their hands.
“Callum is one of the players who, for sure, deserves more, and he’s giving back 1,000 times more. He’s giving goals that mean points for us, that are so crucial.
“We are delighted. Callum is an example of what the players should understand; not everybody can start but everybody can play a big part.”
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Wilson has scored two stoppage-time winners for West Ham in 2026 alone. His close-range tap-in away at Tottenham in mid-January was arguably the lighting of the fuse moment in a previously-doomed season.
In the twelve matchdays since then, the Hammers have genuinely been in European form with 22 points from a possible 39 accumulated.
That is a staggering 15 more than Spurs have accumulated in the same timeframe.
Six of those 15 owe themselves to Wilson’s instincts.
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