West Ham relegated: What now for the Hammers?
By Phil Blanche, Press Association
West Ham’s relegation from the Premier League was confirmed on Sunday.
It ends West Ham’s 14-year stay in the top flight and leaves them picking up the pieces in the Championship next season.
Here, the Press Association looks at the impact that relegation will have on a club who basked in European glory just three years ago when winning the Conference League.
Finances
Parachute payments soften the blow for clubs dropping out of the Premier League.
But there is still a heavy price to be paid for relegation with most estimates putting the crippling cost at over £60million.
West Ham’s wage bill is four times that of the Championship average, so there would have to be some heavy pruning ahead of playing the likes of Lincoln and Preston instead of Arsenal and Manchester City.
Stadium
Majority owner David Sullivan said the 2016 move to the London Stadium showed West Ham were not a “tinpot club”, and Karren Brady famously sold the switch as “a world-class stadium with a world-class team”.
Baroness Brady left in April after 16 years as Hammers vice-chair, but the supporters remain and loathe a stadium that has never come close to their hearts as its Upton Park predecessor.
The 68,000-capacity former Olympic Stadium has been dubbed a “soulless bowl’ by fans, and salt has been rubbed into those wounds with the news that London taxpayers may have to pay an extra £2.5m if West Ham are relegated, because of the club’s lease agreement for London Stadium.
Players
As with any relegated team, it is always a good idea to keep a watch on the exit door.
Necessary trimming of the wage bill will inevitably lead to departures and club captain Jarrod Bowen, an England international, is one obvious saleable asset.
Midfielder Mateus Fernandes, winger Crysencio Summerville and full-back El Hadji Malick Diouf all have their Premier League admirers.
Manager
Nuno Espirito Santo succeeded the sacked Graham Potter on a three-year contract at the end of September with the Hammers 19th in the table.
The Portuguese, who had left Nottingham Forest the previous month, oversaw the bridging of a seven-point gap at the start of January, only for West Ham to fall back into the relegation zone during the closing weeks of the season.
It is unclear whether Nuno would stay around for a Championship campaign, or whether the club would even want him to.
There would seem to be a ready-made replacement in Scott Parker, who spent four years of his playing career at West Ham and has an excellent track record of winning promotion from the Championship.
