Tuesday night’s controversial home defeat to Nottingham Forest leaves Sunday’s opponents West Ham seven points adrift and staring the Championship in the face after years of mismanagement and decline – journo Rob Armstrong and Hammers fan Tom Pritchard take us through a disaster a long time coming.

Sorry to intrude on private grief, but how's the season gone so far for West Ham?

RA: Well, as far as the five stages of grief go, I think we've been through denial, anger, and bargaining. The last-minute loss to Nottingham Forest was probably depression. I think this morning as I write this, I am probably in the acceptance stage. A seven-point gap to safety now and - most crucially - we simply cannot win a game to save our lives. This is as bad a season as I can remember. It's not just the performances, but the overall atmosphere. Rather than indignant rage in the stadium after every chastening last minute loss or dodgy refereeing decision, it's all been met with total apathy.

TP: The bubble has well and truly burst. Fortune is well and truly hiding. After a couple seasons of relative success, we’re back to the West Ham I grew up with – a circus off the pitch and shambles on it – it’s like returning to an old jumper. Winning a (Mickey Mouse) European trophy made me uneasy anyway.

Hammers in the league so far…
Sunderland 3-0 West Ham Mayenda 61, Ballard 73, Isidor 90
West Ham 1-5 Chelsea Paqueta 6 – Pedro 15, neto 23, Fernandez 34, Caicedo 54, Chalobah 58
Forest 0-3 West Ham Bowen 84, Paqueta pen 88, Wilson 90
West Ham 0-3 Spurs Sarr 47, Bergvall 57, van de Ven 64
West Ham 1-2 Palace Bowen 49 – Mateta 37, Mitchell 68
Everton 1-1 West Ham Keane 18 – Bowen 65
Arsenal 2-0 West Ham Rice 38, Saka pen 67
West Ham 0-2 Brentford Thiago 43, Jensen 90
Leeds 2-1 West Ham Aaronson 3, Rodon 15 – Fernandes 90
West Ham 3-1 Newcastle Paqueta 35, Botman og 45, Soucek 90 – Murphy 4
West Ham 3-2 Burnley Wilson 44, Soucek 77, Walker-Peters 87 – Flemming 35, Cullen 90
Bournemouth 2-2 West Ham Tavernier pen 69, Unai 81 – Wilson 11, 35
West Ham 0-2 Liverpool Isak 60, Gakpo 90
Man Utd 1-1 West Ham Dalot 58 – Magassa 83
Brighton 1-1 West Ham Rutter 90 – Bowen 73
West Ham 2-3 Villa Fernandes 1, Bowen 24, Mavropanoso og 9, Rogers 50, 79
Man City 3-0 West Ham Haaland 5, 69, Reijnders 38
West ham 0-1 Fulham Jimenez 85
West Ham 2-2 Brighton Bowen 10, Pacqueta pen 45 – Welbeck pen 32, Veltman 61
Wolves 3-0 West Ham Arias 4, Hee-Chan pen 31, Mane 41
West ham 1-2 Forest Murillo og 13 – Dominguez 55, Gibbs-White pen 89

What are the main causes of this decline to the brink of the Championship, which has felt like it's been coming a while...? Who’s to blame?

RA: You're absolutely right, it has been coming a while. I was a 'Moyes In' man, but I'm not totally convinced we would be in a massively different situation even if he stayed. The rot very much began when he was still here. I'm sure you've seen plenty of hatred towards our board from the West Ham fans. They've been the leading subject of scrutiny and protest for a long, long time. So much of the misery at West Ham stems from the stadium move which feels like it sucked a lot of the soul out of the club. Three unbelievable years in Europe served as a distraction from that.

On top of that, the farcical transfer business and total lack of direction in recent years has left us looking rudderless on the pitch. Some enormous characters were allowed to leave the club over the summer. The likes of Aaron Cresswell, Michail Antonio and Vladimir Coufal - although no longer first team starters - were crucial for the spirit and leadership within the squad. The recruitments that have come in over the last two or three years have not worked. Some of them have already been sold on (for a loss, of course, as is tradition at West Ham).

None of Nuno, Graham Potter or Julen Lopetegui have been able to get us anywhere close to being a decent team. They all have decent CVs but each manager has somehow looked worse than the last. As much as the players have to take a hefty share of the blame, you have to look above at the board for the real culpability.

TP: There are a few reasons, but they all trace back to the hubris, ego and stupidity of the ownership. David Sullivan is an odious little toad who is completely out of his depth in the modern Premier League. Firstly, the move from Upton Park to Stratford. It was hailed as a great financial deal but the stadium is completely lifeless and unsuitable for football. With that, the club culture started to rot. Secondly, DS’s insistence on constantly playing director of football (despite hiring a couple he should really have let do their job for more than one season) resulting in a completely unbalanced squad not suitable for any particular style of play.

Success for the mid-PL teams seems predicated on having a good club structure – good training facilities (not portacabins), a clear style of play (not constantly jumping from pragmatic counter attacking football to attempted progressive possession football), scouting led by data experts (not favoured agents and your son’s suggestions from Football Manager), forward planning for a balanced squad (not constant reaction to emergency and an obsession with attacking midfielders when you really need some full backs) and managers that clearly fit within that structure (rather than constantly flitting between a manager and head coach model who each have different styles of play (Moyes>Pellegrini>Moyes>Lopetegui>Potter>NES). The only thing West Ham consistently do, is take an inconsistent approach to all these things hence the sum is never as good as the parts.

Nuno Espirito Santo got long left? Why hasn't it worked for him? Who would you want instead?

RA: I'd be surprised if Nuno is still there by Sunday, but I really have no idea at this point. They have just invested in £50m of strikers for him, but noise from the club sounds like he's irritated the squad and the dressing room is a grim place to be. We look so defensively frail, which is meant to be his forté. That's been compounded by also not being able to score goals.

If they change manager now, it's going to have to be one of those motivational types that might not be a tactical genius, but can at least get everyone on the same page and inspire a bit of fight. It's a little bit cliché, but it still seems to work in short spells even in the modern day Premier League. A lot of chatter suggests Slaven Bilic coming back which probably fulfils that role.

Failing that, recruit someone for the Championship ahead of next season that we can get behind as a long term project. Michael Carrick would be a popular choice on this front I think).

TP: Nuno made sense and followed the survival pattern (reverting to a solid countering attacking manager after briefly attempting something more progressive). He temporarily stopped the rot with a more compact style and energetic midfield (enjoying the emergence of Potts as a Rice-like figure but with nowhere near as much potential). But he’s also made some strange choices (inexplicably inverting full backs and not settling on a formation). But the result against Wolves was embarrassing. Still, I don’t think changing manager again would improve things. He has the quality and the surrounding structure is so poor for the PL that we have to back him January and build.

Rumours for January? What needs doing?

RA: We are absolutely desperate for some defenders. Charlie Cresswell at Toulouse has been touted as a potential signing for the last 18 months or so. Although whether anyone wants to sign for us now we are as good as relegated is a whole different matter. To be fair to the leadership, they did bring in two strikers in the first week which West Ham have been crying out for. However, it's already looking like too little too late after the Wolves and Forest losses.

TP: Already two in (Pablo and Castellanos) and potentially three out (Fullkrug, Guilherme and Wilson). The two strikers are reasonable punts that provide much-needed energy and youth to our striking department but hardly inspiring. We’re badly in need of some proper old-school leadership at the back. Any rumour that James Collins wanted to come of retirement would be welcomed.

Summer Ins >>> Mateus Fernandes, 21, CM, Southampton, £40m >>> Jean-Clair Tobido, 25, CB, Nice, £35m >>> El Hadji Malick Diouf, 20, LB, Slavia Prague, £20m >>> Mads Hermansen, 25, GK, Leicester, £20m >>> Soungoutou Magassa, 21, DM, Monaco, £15m >>> Kyle Walker Peters, 28, RB, Southampton, Free >>> Callum Wilson, 33, CF, Newcastle, Free >>> Igor Julio, 27, CB, Brighton, Free

Winter Outs >>> Luis Guilherme, 19, RW, Sporting, £10m >>> Niclas Fullkrug, 32, CF, Milan, Loan >>> Callum Marshall, 21, CF, Bochum, Loan >>> Callum Wilson, 33, CF, Released

What sort of side do you expect to put out for this game? They presumably wouldn't want to lose to a Championship side and anger the fans further, but it must be pretty low on the priority list right now?

RA: I have been informed that you have the worst record in the FA Cup Third Round of any club in the country, and therefore I am utterly convinced you will be beating our full starting XI (with maybe the second-choice keeper) on Saturday.

TP: Yeah. We’re out the Carabao and in the relegation zone. Good news is sorely needed so expect our “strongest” side. If you guys get at us and the fans are loud, we’re there for the taking.

Do you think you'll stay up? What are the consequences for the club if you don't?

RA: Absolutely not. After losing the mother of all six-pointers we are now so far adrift and - outside of a miracle - it feels like too big a gap. I think it might be 36 or 37 points for safety this year. We'd have to win another eight games for that target, having only won three so far this season.

Relegation could obviously mean complete and utter financial destruction if we don't come back up quickly. But in theory - we should be ok. We'll still somehow get 40,000 fans a week and they might even get to enjoy the occasional win if we're in the Championship.

Bowen leaving will be sad, but he deserves to push for trophies somewhere. Outside of him, I think a lot of the players that would leave, the fans wouldn't care too much about. Hopefully Soucek would stay and take the armband. We have a talented crop of youngsters at the moment and West Ham fans would enjoy seeing them have a full season of playing in the Championship.

Weirdly, it seems like going down would be a chance at a great reset. Or perhaps I'm just still in the denial stage of grief after all...

TP: I’m not confident we can catch Forest or Leeds I’m sad to say. Worse than that, there’s a real risk the club nosedives on relegation as no one enjoys going to the stadium. The only silver cloud is that it could generate enough fan pressure to get David Sullivan out.

Links >>> West Ham Official Website >>> Football Ground Guide – London Stadium >>> Knees Up Mother Brown – Forum >>> Hammers Chat – YouTube Channel >>> West Ham Till I Die – Blog >>> WHUST – Supporters Trust

Pictures - Reuters Connect

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