Football Season Guide

“Champions of Europe! We know what we are!” was the song that West Ham fans playfully chanted at stadiums across the country after winning the UEFA Conference League back in 2023, but they find themselves back down in the Championship a mere three years later. Where did it all go wrong? The club hierarchy deciding to get rid of David Moyes was the catalyst for a series of subsequent disasters. The man who brought them a European trophy and finished in the top half of the Premier League the following season was ousted in favour of more fashionable names and the promise of a more attractive brand of football. Julen Lopetegui and Graham Potter both failed to deliver on those promises. The Hammers scored fewer goals under the two perceived expansive managers than the did under the “defensive” Moyes. The board went back to a more pragmatic coach in Nuno Espírito Santo but he couldn’t arrest the slide and they were relegated on the final day of the 2025/26 season. In some ways the damage had already been done before Espírito Santo arrived, with the way the club had been mismanaged both on and off the pitch. Despite his failures in the top flight, retaining Espírito Santo for the upcoming campaign is a positive, given that he has achieved promotion from the Championship with Wolves in the past. The Portuguese coach knows what's required at this level. The squad has inevitably lost some big-name players including Crysencio Summerville, Mateus Fernandes and Callum Wilson, but they have managed to keep hold of their star man Jarrod Bowen. The attacker has become a club legend since arriving in 2020 and will spearhead their attempt to get back to the big time. The likes of Aaron Wan-Bissaka, James Ward-Prowse, Tomas Soucek, Taty Castellanos and Edson Álvarez are also terrific options to have in the second tier.