West Ham United U18

English Premier League U18
15 Mar 2029
Thursday
Process
137 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

12 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

West Ham United end the wait against Wolverhampton

It had gone 14 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.

The dugout

Keiber Lamadrid says West Ham United went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Market

Anthony Elanga raises the bar for West Ham United

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at West Ham United heard it as anything else.

Boardroom

Still nobody in the West Ham United dugout

39 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.

Squad

Tempers go at West Ham United

Borja Sainz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Player ratings

Borja Sainz beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Manor Solomon falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The terraces

One of their own: Jayden Danns

He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.

Match

West Ham United see off Wolverhampton

Three points for West Ham United, 1‑0 the final word against Wolverhampton in a contest settled by the finer margins.

In brief

Back issues
136 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

5 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

No end in sight to West Ham United's wait for a win

14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at West Ham United has to find a result from somewhere.

Player ratings

Borja Sainz runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

West Ham United are in real trouble now

Position 18, 20 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.

Market

Joël Veltman puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at West Ham United, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Matteo Ruggeri wants more than West Ham United are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Market

Jean-Clair Todibo has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether West Ham United can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Taty Castellanos stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Taty Castellanos and West Ham United agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jean-Clair Todibo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

135 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

26 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

No end in sight to West Ham United's wait for a win

13 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at West Ham United has to find a result from somewhere.

Market

Ao Tanaka asks to leave West Ham United

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Player ratings

Anthony Elanga runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

West Ham United may not be able to give Anthony Elanga what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Anthony Elanga wants continental football; whether West Ham United can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Market

Ezra Mayers is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at West Ham United training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manor Solomon is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Boardroom

West Ham United ask Barnsley the expensive question

The target is the manager, the approach is real, and the compensation clause is the whole conversation. Clubs deny this kind of story right up until the photograph.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Taty Castellanos

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

In brief

134 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

19 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

Supporters organise against the West Ham United board

A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.

Match

12 matches without a win for West Ham United

The run now stands at 12, and the questions being asked around West Ham United are no longer polite ones.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Mads Hermansen

There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Market

So close: Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s move dies late

The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Plymouth Argyle moved on, Aaron Wan-Bissaka reports back to West Ham United, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.

Market

Denis Portanova asks to leave West Ham United

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Matteo Ruggeri wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

Borja Sainz in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Ham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Borja Sainz was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Squad

Words at West Ham United training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manor Solomon is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

In brief

133 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

12 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

11 matches without a win for West Ham United

The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around West Ham United are no longer polite ones.

Market

The Liverpool deal is off

Everything was agreed until it was not, and Borja Sainz reports back to West Ham United with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.

Market

Niclas Füllkrug asks to leave West Ham United

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Squad

Tempers go at West Ham United

Borja Sainz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Jean-Clair Todibo falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Boardroom

West Ham United ask Haras El Hodoud the expensive question

The target is the manager, the approach is real, and the compensation clause is the whole conversation. Clubs deny this kind of story right up until the photograph.

Boardroom

Still no name above the door at West Ham United

Day 11 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.

Transfer targets

West Ham United rebuffed over Joe Rankin-Costello

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Charlton Athletic have kept their man, and West Ham United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Match

No clean sheets in sight for West Ham United

4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.

In brief

132 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

5 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

Interim Coach is out at West Ham United

Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.

Match

The wait goes on for West Ham United

10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Squad

Mads Hermansen keeps West Ham United in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Boardroom

West Ham United have nobody left to take training

Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.

Market

Tottenham come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and West Ham United did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

Connor Brooks breaks a bone — 14 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Mamadou Sangaré asks to leave West Ham United

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Boardroom

Interim Coach steps up at West Ham United for now

“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.

The dugout

Niclas Füllkrug says West Ham United went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

In brief

  • Player ratings Borja Sainz runs at them all day
  • Boardroom Deadline passes with 4 signed and 4 gone
  • Squad Jarrod Bowen signs a new deal
131 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

29 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

The silence upstairs is getting loud at West Ham United

Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.

Match

No end in sight to West Ham United's wait for a win

9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at West Ham United has to find a result from somewhere.

Match

Nowhere to hide for West Ham United

0‑3 against Manchester United, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.

Market

Terms done: Aaron Wan-Bissaka is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Plymouth Argyle waiting with a shirt. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Squad

22 days out for Connor Brooks after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. West Ham United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Ao Tanaka hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what West Ham United can pretend not to have heard.

Market

West Ham United plan ahead with Ignacio Maestro Puch from Independiente

The most awkward business a club does is signing tomorrow's answer while today's is still in the building. Ignacio Maestro Puch comes from Independiente for exactly that purpose, and the handover will not be discussed publicly by anybody.

Market

Edson Álvarez is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Transfer targets

No deal for Joe Rankin-Costello at that price

West Ham United offered $2.1M; Charlton Athletic said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.

In brief

130 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

22 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

Anger at West Ham United spills outside the ground

It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.

Transfer targets

West Ham United agree $20.7M for Ignacio Maestro Puch

The clubs have shaken hands with Independiente; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.

Market

Ao Tanaka says no to Oxford United

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ao Tanaka had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

Match

The small margins put West Ham United out

Out, 0‑1 to Liverpool, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.

Squad

31 days out for Connor Brooks after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. West Ham United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Match

8 matches without a win for West Ham United

The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around West Ham United are no longer polite ones.

Market

Terms done: Maxwel Cornet is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chesterfield waiting with a shirt. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Transfer targets

West Ham United rebuffed over Harry Gray

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leeds United have kept their man, and West Ham United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

Club America join the queue for Erick Sánchez

Add another name to the list: Club America have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Erick Sánchez. The answer from West Ham United has not changed — yet.

In brief

129 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

15 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Terms done: Aaron Wan-Bissaka is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Milton Keynes Dons waiting with a shirt. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Squad

Connor Brooks breaks a bone — 39 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Transfer targets

West Ham United make their move for Stanley Mills

$12.9M on the table at Oxford United. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Market

West Ham United sell Rhian Brewster for $17.1M

Rhian Brewster has left for Aston Villa in a $17.1M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.

Transfer targets

West Ham United rebuffed over Tammer Kumar

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. West Bromwich Albion have kept their man, and West Ham United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

Aaron Wan-Bissaka hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what West Ham United can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Steven Taylor turns Harrogate Town down

“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.

Match

No end in sight to West Ham United's wait for a win

6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at West Ham United has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Tempers go at West Ham United

Borja Sainz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

In brief

128 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

8 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Edson Álvarez agrees terms with Blackpool

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around West Ham United people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Boardroom

West Ham United spell it out for Interim Coach

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Squad

Connor Brooks breaks a bone — 46 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Match

5 matches without a win for West Ham United

The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around West Ham United are no longer polite ones.

Market

Denis Portanova puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at West Ham United, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jarrod Bowen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Borja Sainz was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Match

3 matches without a goal for West Ham United

The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.

In brief

127 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

1 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Mads Hermansen keeps West Ham United in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Boardroom

Pressure builds in the West Ham United boardroom

The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.

Match

West Ham United taken apart

0‑3 to Arsenal, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.

Market

Edson Álvarez puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at West Ham United, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Only the photograph left for Edson Álvarez

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Edson Álvarez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around West Ham United the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Market

Jean-Clair Todibo raises the bar for West Ham United

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at West Ham United heard it as anything else.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

4 matches without a win for West Ham United

The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around West Ham United are no longer polite ones.

Market

Mamadou Sangaré has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether West Ham United can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

In brief

126 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

25 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

Anger at West Ham United spills outside the ground

It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.

Market

Anthony Elanga has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether West Ham United can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Tempers go at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Words at West Ham United training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erick Sánchez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

The dugout

No hiding place for Taty Castellanos

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Taty Castellanos, and the manager let it.

Match

West Ham United come up short against Brighton

Brighton left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Player ratings

Borja Sainz beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Match

Halfway: West Ham United sit in position 13

17 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.

The dugout

Interim Coach faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

In brief

125 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

18 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Ao Tanaka hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what West Ham United can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Mads Hermansen keeps West Ham United in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Market

Matteo Ruggeri has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether West Ham United can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Tempers go at West Ham United

Borja Sainz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jarrod Bowen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Ollie Scarles signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ollie Scarles and West Ham United agree another 5 years.

Match

Honours even between West Ham United and Chelsea

1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.

The dugout

The form table has caught Konstantinos Mavropanos

Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.

The dugout

The view from the dugout

“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.

In brief

124 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

11 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

Niclas Füllkrug sends West Ham United through

Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Niclas Füllkrug obliged against Leeds United. 5‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is West Ham United.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Mads Hermansen

There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Player ratings

Both of them Niclas Füllkrug's — 8.83

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.83, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Market

Anthony Elanga wants more than West Ham United are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Market

Oliver Rathbone has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around West Ham United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Words at West Ham United training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jarrod Bowen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Match

Nobody could stop scoring

7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about West Ham United and Leeds United in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

The dugout

No hiding place for Manor Solomon

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Manor Solomon, and the manager let it.

In brief

123 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

4 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Edson Álvarez is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Boardroom

The silence upstairs is getting loud at West Ham United

Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.

Match

No end in sight to West Ham United's wait for a win

6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at West Ham United has to find a result from somewhere.

Player ratings

Anthony Elanga beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The dugout

James Ward-Prowse keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” West Ham United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Matteo Ruggeri raises the bar for West Ham United

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at West Ham United heard it as anything else.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at West Ham United training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manor Solomon is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Match

Borja Sainz’s goal not enough for West Ham United

Borja Sainz scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Leeds United, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

In brief

122 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

27 Nov 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

12 saves: Mads Hermansen was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

The terraces

Supporters organise against the West Ham United board

A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.

Market

Edson Álvarez hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what West Ham United can pretend not to have heard.

Match

No end in sight to West Ham United's wait for a win

5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at West Ham United has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Borja Sainz in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Ham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Manor Solomon falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Boardroom

West Ham United beat the market to Jili Buyabu from Sheffield United

Sheffield United will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Jili Buyabu has pre-agreed a move to West Ham United, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.

Match

West Ham United refuse to lose to Manchester City

A point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.

The dugout

Niclas Füllkrug gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

In brief

121 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

20 Nov 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Tempers go at West Ham United

Borja Sainz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Match

No end in sight to West Ham United's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at West Ham United has to find a result from somewhere.

Market

Steven Taylor has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around West Ham United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Edson Álvarez wants to go home

“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and West Ham United know it.

Squad

Words at West Ham United training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ollie Scarles is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Market

Luca Nocerino arrives at West Ham United as the heir apparent

Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Luca Nocerino is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.

The dugout

No hiding place for Edson Álvarez

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Edson Álvarez, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Taty Castellanos asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

Match

Manor Solomon rescues a point for West Ham United

It needed Manor Solomon to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Middlesbrough, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

In brief

  • The dugout The manager’s verdict
  • Market The Borja Sainz talk will not go away
  • Squad No place for Luca Nocerino in the new shape
120 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

13 Nov 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Oliver Rathbone has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around West Ham United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manor Solomon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

The goals have deserted West Ham United

3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at West Ham United can tell you which week it ends in.

Match

A bad afternoon for West Ham United against Nottingham Forest

0‑1 to Nottingham Forest, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Joël Veltman

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Squad

A quiet fortnight at West Ham United

With 5 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.

The dugout

Interim Coach answers for it

“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.

The dugout

Taty Castellanos asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

In brief

119 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

6 Nov 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

11 saves: Mads Hermansen was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Player ratings

Anthony Elanga was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 29. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Market

Edson Álvarez has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around West Ham United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

The dugout

James Ward-Prowse keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” West Ham United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Market

Mamadou Sangaré wants more than West Ham United are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

A bad afternoon for West Ham United against Tottenham

0‑1 to Tottenham, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Ollie Scarles

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

In brief

118 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

30 Oct 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

The terraces

Anger at West Ham United spills outside the ground

It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.

Match

West Ham United march on in the cup

Lincoln City are out and West Ham United go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.

Match

West Ham United win it in stoppage time

The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 94th minute. Lincoln City will replay every second of the added time for a week.

Market

Edson Álvarez puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at West Ham United, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

West Ham United count the cost of losing Jarrod Bowen

40 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.

Market

Anthony Elanga has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether West Ham United can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Player ratings

Borja Sainz runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Borja Sainz in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Ham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at West Ham United training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erick Sánchez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

In brief

117 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

23 Oct 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Ao Tanaka asks to leave West Ham United

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Player ratings

Anthony Elanga was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Market

Matteo Ruggeri has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether West Ham United can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Tempers go at West Ham United

Borja Sainz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Market

Only the photograph left for Steven Taylor

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Steven Taylor will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around West Ham United the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Words at West Ham United training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manor Solomon is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Boardroom

Sulaiman Oyewale will join West Ham United for nothing

The paperwork is done long before the player is. Sulaiman Oyewale has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means West Ham United have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.

Match

West Ham United come up short against Aston Villa

Aston Villa left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The dugout

The view from the dugout

“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.

In brief

116 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

16 Oct 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

West Ham United run riot against Burnley

3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Player ratings

Both of them Erick Sánchez's — 8.44

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.44, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Market

Oliver Rathbone is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Emanuele Anastasia gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Emanuele Anastasia has just signed for West Ham United, and for once the answer mattered.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manor Solomon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Taty Castellanos in the eights

A performance of 8.50 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Market

Emanuele Anastasia arrives at West Ham United as the heir apparent

Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Emanuele Anastasia is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.

Player ratings

One of those days for Borja Sainz

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.13, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

In brief

115 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

9 Oct 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Both of them Borja Sainz's — 8.29

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.29, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Market

Edson Álvarez is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

The dugout

Tomáš Souček: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” West Ham United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at West Ham United training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jarrod Bowen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

The dugout

No hiding place for Manor Solomon

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Manor Solomon, and the manager let it.

Squad

6 West Ham United players away with their countries

The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 6 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.

Match

Crystal Palace snatch it back from West Ham United

A goal on 93 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.

Match

Honours even between West Ham United and Crystal Palace

2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.

In brief

114 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

2 Oct 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

The terraces

The mood at West Ham United has turned into something else

Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.

Market

Jean-Clair Todibo raises the bar for West Ham United

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at West Ham United heard it as anything else.

Squad

Borja Sainz in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Ham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Jarrod Bowen runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jarrod Bowen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Edvin Austbø signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Edvin Austbø and West Ham United agree another 5 years.

Match

Erick Sánchez sends West Ham United past Fulham

It finished 2‑0, and it was Erick Sánchez’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to West Ham United.

Player ratings

One of those days for Erick Sánchez

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.31, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Player ratings

One of those days for Taty Castellanos

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.31, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

In brief

113 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

25 Sep 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

The knee: Niclas Füllkrug out for 21 days

21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. West Ham United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

The dugout

Rhian Brewster: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” West Ham United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Tempers go at West Ham United

Borja Sainz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Market

Steven Taylor has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around West Ham United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Words at West Ham United training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manor Solomon is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Squad

Taty Castellanos reaches 100 goals

100 goals for the club, every one of them filed away in the memory of a supporter somewhere.

Player ratings

Borja Sainz beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Match

Taty Castellanos’s goal not enough for West Ham United

Taty Castellanos scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Liverpool, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

The dugout

Ollie Scarles gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

In brief

  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • The dugout Taty Castellanos knocks on the manager’s door
  • Market The Ivan Toney story refuses to die
112 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

18 Sep 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Niclas Füllkrug damages knee ligaments — 30 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Squad

Mads Hermansen stands alone

7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

The dugout

Dário Essugo keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” West Ham United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Only the photograph left for Oliver Rathbone

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Oliver Rathbone will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around West Ham United the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Jarrod Bowen falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

No hiding place for Joël Veltman

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joël Veltman, and the manager let it.

The dugout

The manager has not finished forgetting Erick Sánchez's mistake

Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.

Match

West Ham United share the spoils with Manchester United

A 1‑1 draw with Manchester United leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

In brief

111 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

11 Sep 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Niclas Füllkrug out for 40 days

40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. West Ham United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Edson Álvarez hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what West Ham United can pretend not to have heard.

The dugout

Joël Veltman keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” West Ham United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Edson Álvarez has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around West Ham United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Market

Not going: Maxwel Cornet stays at West Ham United

“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Stockport County had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.

Match

West Ham United end the wait against Newcastle United

It had gone 9 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.

Market

Anthony Elanga wants more than West Ham United are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Borja Sainz in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Ham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Boardroom

West Ham United to lose Oliver Rathbone for free

There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Oliver Rathbone has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.

In brief

110 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

4 Sep 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

The mood at West Ham United has turned into something else

Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.

Squad

The knee: Niclas Füllkrug out for 49 days

49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. West Ham United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Match

No end in sight to West Ham United's wait for a win

9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at West Ham United has to find a result from somewhere.

Match

West Ham United let it slip despite Ivan Toney

Ivan Toney had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Sunderland were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.

Player ratings

Both of them Ivan Toney's — 8.74

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.74, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 22 signed and 10 gone

That is the business done at West Ham United until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.

Market

Matteo Ruggeri wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at West Ham United hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Anthony Elanga

Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

James Ward-Prowse’s move to Liverpool falls through

The deal that would have taken James Ward-Prowse to Liverpool has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to West Ham United with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.

In brief

109 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

28 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Niclas Füllkrug

56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. West Ham United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Transfer targets

West Ham United baulk at the price for Gustavo Sá

Nottingham Forest wanted more than $17.1M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Match

The wait goes on for West Ham United

8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Market

Terms done: Maxwel Cornet is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Leyton Orient waiting with a shirt. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market

Brentford come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and West Ham United did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Market

Only the photograph left for Steven Taylor

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Steven Taylor will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around West Ham United the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Player ratings

Anthony Elanga runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Steven Taylor is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

In brief

108 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

21 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Niclas Füllkrug damages knee ligaments — 65 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 65 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Match

Chastening afternoon for West Ham United

A 0‑4 beating by Arsenal was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.

Transfer targets

An offer of $17.1M for Gustavo Sá

West Ham United have gone to Nottingham Forest with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.

Market

James Ward-Prowse agrees terms with Wycombe Wanderers

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around West Ham United people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Transfer targets

No deal for Joël Piroe at that price

West Ham United offered $10.1M; Leeds United said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.

Match

The wait goes on for West Ham United

7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Market

The Charlton Athletic deal is off

Everything was agreed until it was not, and Edson Álvarez reports back to West Ham United with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Mads Hermansen

There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Squad

The step up is real for Julio Soler

At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.

In brief

107 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

14 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Niclas Füllkrug

72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. West Ham United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Transfer targets

Leicester City tell West Ham United: Patson Daka is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Market

Tomáš Souček hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what West Ham United can pretend not to have heard.

Transfer targets

West Ham United make their move for Joël Piroe

$10.1M on the table at Leeds United. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Market

Charlton Athletic come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and West Ham United did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Market

Terms done: Steven Taylor is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Tranmere Rovers waiting with a shirt. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market

Maxwel Cornet has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around West Ham United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Borja Sainz in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Ham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Ryan Oné is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

In brief

106 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

7 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

The mood at West Ham United has turned into something else

Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Niclas Füllkrug

79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. West Ham United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Boardroom

The scrutiny sharpens at West Ham United

Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at West Ham United is running low.

Market

Middlesbrough come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and West Ham United did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Real improvement from Dário Essugo at West Ham United

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dário Essugo is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Market

Mamadou Sangaré wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at West Ham United hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jarrod Bowen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

Rhian Brewster has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether West Ham United can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

In brief

105 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

31 Jul 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Niclas Füllkrug out for 88 days

88 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. West Ham United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Edson Álvarez turns Reading down

“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.

The dugout

Taty Castellanos says West Ham United went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Market

Joël Veltman puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at West Ham United, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Stade Brestois come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and West Ham United did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Market

Maxwel Cornet agrees terms with Leyton Orient

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around West Ham United people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Jayden Danns is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Squad

Late improvement for Kyle Walker-Peters

At 31 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.

In brief

104 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

24 Jul 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Niclas Füllkrug out for 96 days

96 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. West Ham United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

James Ward-Prowse agrees terms with Peterborough United

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around West Ham United people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Transfer targets

Max Alleyne is a medical away from West Ham United

The deal with Manchester City is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.

Squad

Tempers go at West Ham United

Borja Sainz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Julio Soler is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Squad

Rhian Brewster has improved at 28, which nobody expected

Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.

Market

Tomáš Souček told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Tomáš Souček has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at West Ham United.

Market

Leyton Orient expected to open talks for Maxwel Cornet

Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. West Ham United will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.

Market

The Jarrod Bowen story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jarrod Bowen signs something — a contract at West Ham United or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

103 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

17 Jul 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Niclas Füllkrug

106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. West Ham United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Boardroom

The interim tag comes off Interim Coach

West Ham United interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.

Market

West Ham United turn down TSG Hoffenheim for Mads Hermansen

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Market

James Ward-Prowse asks to leave West Ham United

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Only the photograph left for Maxwel Cornet

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maxwel Cornet will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around West Ham United the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Transfer targets

Dário Essugo is a medical away from West Ham United

The deal with Chelsea is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.

Squad

Borja Sainz in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Ham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Ryan Oné is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Squad

Late improvement for Jean-Clair Todibo

At 28 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.

In brief

102 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

10 Jul 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

Supporters organise against the West Ham United board

A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.

Squad

The knee: Niclas Füllkrug out for 115 days

115 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. West Ham United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

James Ward-Prowse is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

The dugout

Karl Darlow: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” West Ham United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

West Ham United say no — this time

The offer from Burnley for Ezra Mayers was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Market

Jean-Clair Todibo raises the bar for West Ham United

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at West Ham United heard it as anything else.

Boardroom

Still no name above the door at West Ham United

Day 39 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Real improvement from Preston Fearon at West Ham United

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Preston Fearon is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

In brief

101 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

3 Jul 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Niclas Füllkrug out for 123 days

123 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. West Ham United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

The dugout

Borja Sainz says West Ham United went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Market

Terms done: Maxwel Cornet is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Gillingham waiting with a shirt. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Transfer targets

West Ham United rebuffed over Tyrique George

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Everton have kept their man, and West Ham United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

Aaron Wan-Bissaka asks to leave West Ham United

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Edson Álvarez’s move to Reading falls through

The deal that would have taken Edson Álvarez to Reading has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to West Ham United with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.

Market

Anthony Elanga wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Niclas Füllkrug signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Niclas Füllkrug and West Ham United agree another 2 years.

In brief

100 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

26 Jun 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Niclas Füllkrug damages knee ligaments — 132 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 132 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Market

Edson Álvarez has said yes to Reading

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. West Ham United have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Market

Ao Tanaka puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at West Ham United, and it is not being withdrawn.

Transfer targets

Queens Park Rangers tell West Ham United: Richard Koné is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Transfer targets

No deal for Ibrahim Osman at that price

West Ham United offered $6.2M; Brighton said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.

Market

West Ham United plan ahead with Jayden Danns from Leeds United

The most awkward business a club does is signing tomorrow's answer while today's is still in the building. Jayden Danns comes from Leeds United for exactly that purpose, and the handover will not be discussed publicly by anybody.

Market

West Ham United may not be able to give Matteo Ruggeri what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Matteo Ruggeri wants continental football; whether West Ham United can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Tempers go at West Ham United

Borja Sainz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

The dugout

No hiding place for Joël Veltman

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joël Veltman, and the manager let it.

In brief

99 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

19 Jun 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Niclas Füllkrug damages knee ligaments — 140 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 140 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Market

James Ward-Prowse agrees terms with Plymouth Argyle

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around West Ham United people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Caolan Boyd-Munce

West Ham United asked and Wycombe Wanderers said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Market

Max Kilman moves on

Grimsby Town pay $9.1M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.

Market

James Ward-Prowse hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what West Ham United can pretend not to have heard.

The dugout

Soungoutou Magassa keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” West Ham United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Jarrod Bowen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ryan Oné was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Pablo Hofstetter stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Pablo Hofstetter and West Ham United agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

In brief

98 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

12 Jun 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

Anger at West Ham United spills outside the ground

It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.

Transfer targets

No deal for Cundo at that price

West Ham United offered $31.1M; Leicester City said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Mihailo Ivanović

West Ham United asked and Millwall said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Market

Terms done: Max Kilman is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Grimsby Town waiting with a shirt. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market

West Ham United plan ahead with Lewis Koumas from Liverpool

The most awkward business a club does is signing tomorrow's answer while today's is still in the building. Lewis Koumas comes from Liverpool for exactly that purpose, and the handover will not be discussed publicly by anybody.

Market

Oliver Rathbone puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at West Ham United, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Anthony Elanga wants more than West Ham United are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Boardroom

Still nobody in the West Ham United dugout

11 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.

In brief

97 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

5 Jun 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

the manager is out at West Ham United

Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.

Transfer targets

West Ham United make their move for Cundo

$26.9M on the table at Leicester City. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Cundo

West Ham United asked and Leicester City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Boardroom

West Ham United have nobody left to take training

Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.

Transfer targets

West Ham United make their move for Lewis Koumas

$11.3M on the table at Liverpool. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Transfer targets

No deal for Mihailo Ivanović at that price

West Ham United offered $13.3M; Millwall said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.

Boardroom

Interim Coach steps up at West Ham United for now

“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.

Market

Maxwel Cornet puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at West Ham United, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Matteo Ruggeri wants more than West Ham United are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

In brief

96 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

29 May 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

The scrutiny sharpens at West Ham United

Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at West Ham United is running low.

Squad

Tempers go at West Ham United

Borja Sainz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Market

Steven Taylor is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Market

West Ham United may not be able to give Mamadou Sangaré what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mamadou Sangaré wants continental football; whether West Ham United can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Ryan Oné falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

A promise honoured at West Ham United

Something was said to Ao Tanaka and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.

The dugout

Preston Fearon knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Preston Fearon trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

Market

Taty Castellanos linked with a move away

The name of Taty Castellanos keeps appearing in other people's back pages. West Ham United say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

A door opens for Edvin Austbø

He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.

In brief

95 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

22 May 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

James Ward-Prowse asks to leave West Ham United

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Squad

Borja Sainz in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Ham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

No hiding place for Keiber Lamadrid

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Keiber Lamadrid, and the manager let it.

Market

The Ivan Toney question follows West Ham United around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ivan Toney’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

Karl Darlow knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Karl Darlow trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

The dugout

Aaron Wan-Bissaka has been promised minutes

A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Aaron Wan-Bissaka has written the date down.

Squad

A season on the outside for Denis Portanova

He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at West Ham United has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.

Squad

Taty Castellanos is training like a man with a point to make

Nobody has promised him anything and he has not asked. The coaching staff have noticed, which at this stage of a season is the only thing that matters.

In brief

94 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

15 May 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

Supporters organise against the West Ham United board

A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.

The dugout

Keiber Lamadrid says West Ham United went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Jarrod Bowen falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

No hiding place for Ryan Oné

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ryan Oné, and the manager let it.

Loan watch

9 goals on loan for Pablo Felipe

37 appearances at Coventry City and the goals keep coming. West Ham United are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.

Squad

The formation has left Matty James behind

Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. West Ham United will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.

Market

The Jarrod Bowen talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. West Ham United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

Squad

James Ward-Prowse has had enough of the noise

The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.

In brief

93 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

8 May 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

West Ham United finish in position 17

27 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.

Match

6 matches without a win for West Ham United

The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around West Ham United are no longer polite ones.

Market

Jean-Clair Todibo has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether West Ham United can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Joël Veltman stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Joël Veltman and West Ham United agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Jarrod Bowen falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Squad

Denis Portanova gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Denis Portanova has just signed for West Ham United, and for once the answer mattered.

Match

No clean sheets in sight for West Ham United

4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.

Match

Taty Castellanos’s goal not enough for West Ham United

Taty Castellanos scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Aston Villa, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

In brief

  • Player ratings Jarrod Bowen runs at them all day
  • The dugout No hiding place for Tomáš Souček
  • The dugout the manager faces the questions
92 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

1 May 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

The silence upstairs is getting loud at West Ham United

Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.

Squad

6 saves: Mads Hermansen was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Match

No end in sight to West Ham United's wait for a win

5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at West Ham United has to find a result from somewhere.

Market

West Ham United may not be able to give Anthony Elanga what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Anthony Elanga wants continental football; whether West Ham United can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Jarrod Bowen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Steven Taylor has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around West Ham United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Market

Mamadou Sangaré raises the bar for West Ham United

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at West Ham United heard it as anything else.

Squad

Erick Sánchez falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

No hiding place for Taty Castellanos

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Taty Castellanos, and the manager let it.

In brief

91 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

24 Apr 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

11 saves: Mads Hermansen was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Market

James Ward-Prowse hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what West Ham United can pretend not to have heard.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Borja Sainz

Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Player ratings

Jean-Clair Todibo pops up at the right end — 7.36

7.36, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.

Market

West Ham United may not be able to give Matteo Ruggeri what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Matteo Ruggeri wants continental football; whether West Ham United can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Match

The wait goes on for West Ham United

4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Squad

Tempers go at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jarrod Bowen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

A bad afternoon for West Ham United against Crystal Palace

1‑2 to Crystal Palace, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

In brief

  • The dugout No hiding place for Ao Tanaka
  • Squad Appearance number 100 for Ollie Scarles
  • The dugout the manager answers for it
90 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

17 Apr 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

Supporters organise against the West Ham United board

A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Jarrod Bowen falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Match

West Ham United come up short against Fulham

Fulham left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The dugout

No hiding place for Mads Hermansen

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mads Hermansen, and the manager let it.

Player ratings

Borja Sainz was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Erick Sánchez

Marked 8.22 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

The dugout

the manager faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” the manager after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

Market

The Ivan Toney talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. West Ham United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

In brief

89 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

10 Apr 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Words at West Ham United training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jarrod Bowen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Player ratings

Anthony Elanga runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

The dugout

No hiding place for Joël Veltman

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joël Veltman, and the manager let it.

Match

West Ham United hit back inside 2 minutes

Leeds United held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. West Ham United answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.

Loan watch

The goals keep arriving from Pablo Felipe’s exile

9 goals in 34 games at Coventry City — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at West Ham United updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.

Match

Ivan Toney rescues a point for West Ham United

It needed Ivan Toney to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Leeds United, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

The dugout

Half-satisfied: the manager on the draw

“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.

Squad

“I want to play”: Edvin Austbø speaks

“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.

In brief

88 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

3 Apr 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

12 saves: Mads Hermansen was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Boardroom

Pressure builds in the West Ham United boardroom

The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.

Match

West Ham United taken apart

0‑4 to Manchester City, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.

Boardroom

West Ham United put the manager on notice

The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.

Squad

21 days out for Soungoutou Magassa after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. West Ham United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

The dugout

Joël Veltman says West Ham United went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Market

Jean-Clair Todibo wants more than West Ham United are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Tempers go at West Ham United

Borja Sainz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Market

Steven Taylor is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

In brief

87 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

27 Mar 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

West Ham United run riot against Newcastle United

4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Squad

A fracture rules Soungoutou Magassa out for 29 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason West Ham United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

3 goals for Taty Castellanos

The match ball belongs to Taty Castellanos, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.

Squad

Borja Sainz in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Ham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Mamadou Sangaré wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

Jarrod Bowen falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Player ratings

Taty Castellanos was on a different afternoon to everybody else

9.51. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Ivan Toney

Marked 8.68 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Aaron Wan-Bissaka

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

In brief

  • The dugout Joël Veltman knocks on the manager’s door
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • Loan watch The goals keep arriving from Pablo Felipe’s exile
86 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

20 Mar 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

The mood at West Ham United has turned into something else

Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.

Boardroom

the manager takes the West Ham United job

“I have watched this squad. There is more in it than the table says.” First press conference, first promise — the manager made the one every new manager makes, and now comes the part where it gets checked.

Squad

37 days out for Soungoutou Magassa after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. West Ham United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Player ratings

A brace, and Jarrod Bowen takes the afternoon — 8.61

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jarrod Bowen provided it, and the 8.61 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Market

Maxwel Cornet asks to leave West Ham United

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Borja Sainz

Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

The dugout

No hiding place for Mads Hermansen

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mads Hermansen, and the manager let it.

In brief

85 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

13 Mar 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

46 days out for Soungoutou Magassa after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. West Ham United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Player ratings

A brace, and Ivan Toney takes the afternoon — 8.73

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ivan Toney provided it, and the 8.73 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

The dugout

Maxwel Cornet keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” West Ham United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Anthony Elanga wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at West Ham United hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Boardroom

Still no name above the door at West Ham United

Day 41 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jarrod Bowen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Jarrod Bowen was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Boardroom

West Ham United agree a free transfer for Rossi

Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.

In brief

84 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

6 Mar 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

West Ham United taken apart

0‑5 to Arsenal, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.

Squad

A fracture rules Soungoutou Magassa out for 55 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason West Ham United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

Mads Hermansen stands alone

8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Market

Matteo Ruggeri raises the bar for West Ham United

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at West Ham United heard it as anything else.

Market

Jean-Clair Todibo wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

Matteo Ruggeri in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Ham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Only the photograph left for Steven Taylor

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Steven Taylor will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around West Ham United the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Jarrod Bowen falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

Jean-Clair Todibo gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

In brief

83 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

28 Feb 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A fracture rules Soungoutou Magassa out for 64 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason West Ham United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Match

Every point is an argument now for West Ham United

Position 18 and 19 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.

Market

West Ham United may not be able to give Anthony Elanga what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Anthony Elanga wants continental football; whether West Ham United can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Borja Sainz in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Ham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Jarrod Bowen falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Match

Brighton take the points off West Ham United

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Player ratings

Ivan Toney did the work nobody counts — 6.49

11 combined actions and 6.49. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.

Squad

Maxwel Cornet wants to go home

“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and West Ham United know it.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Anthony Elanga

Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

In brief

82 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

21 Feb 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

The terraces

The mood at West Ham United has turned into something else

Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.

Squad

Soungoutou Magassa breaks a bone — 72 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

Mads Hermansen keeps West Ham United in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Market

Maxwel Cornet hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what West Ham United can pretend not to have heard.

Player ratings

Borja Sainz was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Market

Matteo Ruggeri has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether West Ham United can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Match

Nobody wants to play West Ham United right now

3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Jarrod Bowen falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

In brief

81 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

14 Feb 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Soungoutou Magassa breaks a bone — 82 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 82 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

Mads Hermansen keeps West Ham United in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Borja Sainz

Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

The dugout

Max Kilman: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” West Ham United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Max Kilman’s move to Stevenage falls through

The deal that would have taken Max Kilman to Stevenage has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to West Ham United with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Market

Mamadou Sangaré wants more than West Ham United are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Words at West Ham United training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jarrod Bowen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Boardroom

Still no name above the door at West Ham United

Day 13 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.

In brief

80 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

7 Feb 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

West Ham United part company with Luke Reid

The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.

Squad

Soungoutou Magassa breaks a bone — 90 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 90 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Boardroom

An empty coaching office at West Ham United

There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.

Market

Terms done: Max Kilman is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Stevenage waiting with a shirt. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Player ratings

Jarrod Bowen scores twice — 8.72

Two goals and a mark of 8.72 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Transfer targets

West Ham United baulk at the price for Kieran Morgan

Queens Park Rangers wanted more than $8.3M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Boardroom

Interim Coach minds the shop at West Ham United

“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.

Market

James Ward-Prowse hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what West Ham United can pretend not to have heard.

Match

At last: West Ham United win one

9 matches without a win, and then this, against Ipswich Town. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.

In brief

79 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

31 Jan 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

98 days out for Soungoutou Magassa after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. West Ham United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Squad

Mads Hermansen keeps West Ham United in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Boardroom

The silence upstairs is getting loud at West Ham United

Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.

Match

9 matches without a win for West Ham United

The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around West Ham United are no longer polite ones.

Market

Niclas Füllkrug agrees terms with Udinese

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around West Ham United people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Match

West Ham United sink to position 18

10 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.

Market

Edson Álvarez puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at West Ham United, and it is not being withdrawn.

Transfer targets

West Ham United make their move for Kieran Morgan

$8.3M on the table at Queens Park Rangers. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Market

Business is business: Daniel Cummings goes

Huddersfield Town paid $2.3M and West Ham United took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.

In brief

78 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

24 Jan 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

The mood at West Ham United has turned into something else

Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.

Squad

Soungoutou Magassa breaks a bone — 108 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 108 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Ao Tanaka asks to leave West Ham United

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Match

The wait goes on for West Ham United

8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Market

Max Kilman has said yes to Rotherham United

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. West Ham United have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Market

West Ham United sign Ryan Oné for $6.6M

The paperwork is done: Ryan Oné joins from Sheffield United in a deal worth $6.6M. Now comes the harder part.

Market

Only the photograph left for Daniel Cummings

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Cummings will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around West Ham United the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Borja Sainz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

The goals have deserted West Ham United

4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at West Ham United can tell you which week it ends in.

In brief

77 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

17 Jan 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Soungoutou Magassa breaks a bone — 117 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 117 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

West Ham United sign Borja Sainz for $69.1M

The paperwork is done: Borja Sainz joins from Porto in a deal worth $69.1M. Now comes the harder part.

Squad

Mads Hermansen keeps West Ham United in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Market

West Ham United say no — this time

The offer from Porto for Mads Hermansen was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Market

Alphonse Areola agrees terms with Birmingham

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around West Ham United people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Squad

Borja Sainz gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Borja Sainz has just signed for West Ham United, and for once the answer mattered.

Match

No end in sight to West Ham United's wait for a win

7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at West Ham United has to find a result from somewhere.

Transfer targets

West Ham United make their move for Ryan Oné

$6.6M on the table at Sheffield United. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Transfer targets

$710.0K settles it between the clubs for Karl Darlow

Manchester United have accepted the money. What West Ham United do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.

In brief

76 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

10 Jan 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Soungoutou Magassa breaks a bone — 124 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 124 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

West Ham United get their man

The chase for Mamadou Sangaré ended with $19.9M changing hands and Brentford out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.

Transfer targets

West Ham United agree $4.0M for Ellery Balcombe

The clubs have shaken hands with Brentford; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.

Market

Slavia Prague come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and West Ham United did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Market

Niclas Füllkrug says no to Mallorca

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Niclas Füllkrug had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

Market

Terms done: Daniel Cummings is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Huddersfield Town waiting with a shirt. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Player ratings

Anthony Elanga runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

The dugout

Niclas Füllkrug keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” West Ham United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Match

6 matches without a win for West Ham United

The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around West Ham United are no longer polite ones.

In brief

75 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

3 Jan 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A fracture rules Soungoutou Magassa out for 131 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason West Ham United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Transfer targets

West Ham United bid $60.6M for Borja Sainz

The offer went to Porto this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.

Boardroom

The scrutiny sharpens at West Ham United

Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at West Ham United is running low.

Transfer targets

Sporting CP tell West Ham United: Rodrigo Zalazar is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Boardroom

West Ham United spell it out for Luke Reid

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Luke Reid has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Match

West Ham United taken apart

0‑3 to Bournemouth, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.

Transfer targets

An offer of $15.0M for Mamadou Sangaré

West Ham United have gone to Brentford with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.

Match

West Ham United sink to position 18

10 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.

Market

West Ham United turn down Mainz 05 for Niclas Füllkrug

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

In brief

74 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

27 Dec 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

Supporters organise against the West Ham United board

A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.

Squad

A fracture rules Soungoutou Magassa out for 139 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason West Ham United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Match

A hiding for West Ham United

Beaten 2‑5 by Aston Villa, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.

Market

Ao Tanaka asks to leave West Ham United

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Player ratings

Jean-Clair Todibo goes up and wins it — 7.41

A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.41 for the rest of it.

Market

West Ham United may not be able to give Anthony Elanga what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Anthony Elanga wants continental football; whether West Ham United can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Match

No end in sight to West Ham United's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at West Ham United has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Steven Taylor has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around West Ham United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

In brief

73 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

20 Dec 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Taty Castellanos scores twice — 8.59

Two goals and a mark of 8.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad

Mads Hermansen stands alone

6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Market

Matteo Ruggeri has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether West Ham United can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Market

Only the photograph left for Daniel Cummings

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Cummings will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around West Ham United the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Boardroom

Ryan Battrum signs for Fulham while still at West Ham United

The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ryan Battrum has agreed terms with Fulham for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jarrod Bowen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Edvin Austbø stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Edvin Austbø and West Ham United agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Player ratings

One of those days for Jarrod Bowen

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.02, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

In brief

72 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

13 Dec 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Mads Hermansen

There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Match

The small margins put West Ham United out

Out, 1‑2 to Burnley, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.

Market

James Ward-Prowse hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what West Ham United can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Anthony Elanga raises the bar for West Ham United

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at West Ham United heard it as anything else.

Squad

Tempers go at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jarrod Bowen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Soungoutou Magassa signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Soungoutou Magassa commits to West Ham United for another 4 years.

Player ratings

Both jobs done by Aaron Wan-Bissaka — 7.88

A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 7.88, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.

Player ratings

Both jobs done by Keiber Lamadrid — 7.31

A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 12 actions, 7.31, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.

In brief

71 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

6 Dec 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

West Ham United are in real trouble now

Position 18, 8 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.

Squad

3 goals for Manor Solomon

The match ball belongs to Manor Solomon, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.

The dugout

Oliver Rathbone keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” West Ham United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Boardroom

The silence upstairs is getting loud at West Ham United

Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.

Market

Matteo Ruggeri wants more than West Ham United are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Jarrod Bowen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at West Ham United training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erick Sánchez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Match

West Ham United see off Fulham

Three points for West Ham United, 3‑2 the final word against Fulham in a contest settled by the finer margins.

The dugout

Ao Tanaka gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

In brief

70 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

29 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

Supporters organise against the West Ham United board

A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.

The dugout

Alphonse Areola: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” West Ham United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Match

5 matches without a win for West Ham United

The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around West Ham United are no longer polite ones.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Matteo Ruggeri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Steven Taylor has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around West Ham United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Player ratings

Jarrod Bowen runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Jarrod Bowen falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

Mads Hermansen gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Match

Leeds United take the points off West Ham United

Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

In brief

69 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

22 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Daniel Cummings has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around West Ham United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Match

The wait goes on for West Ham United

4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Words at West Ham United training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jarrod Bowen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Match

West Ham United come up short against Manchester City

Manchester City left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Boardroom

West Ham United agree a free transfer for Matty James

Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.

The dugout

No hiding place for Jean-Clair Todibo

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jean-Clair Todibo, and the manager let it.

Squad

Maxwel Cornet wants to go home

“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and West Ham United know it.

Player ratings

Erick Sánchez was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.11. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

In brief

  • The dugout A promise honoured at West Ham United
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • The dugout Ao Tanaka knocks on the manager's door
68 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

15 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

James Ward-Prowse asks to leave West Ham United

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Player ratings

Ao Tanaka goes up and wins it — 7.51

A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.51 for the rest of it.

Squad

Tempers go at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Match

Nobody could stop scoring

6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about West Ham United and Newcastle United in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

Squad

Words at West Ham United training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jarrod Bowen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Match

Newcastle United take the points off West Ham United

Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

The dugout

Joël Veltman gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Player ratings

Erick Sánchez was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Squad

A quiet fortnight at West Ham United

With 5 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.

In brief

67 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

8 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

West Ham United are in real trouble now

Position 18, 5 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.

Squad

Taty Castellanos in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Ham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jarrod Bowen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Edson Álvarez wants to go home

“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at West Ham United can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.

The dugout

No hiding place for Edvin Austbø

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Edvin Austbø, and the manager let it.

Player ratings

Ivan Toney beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

A smaller club would suit Mads Hermansen now

He has had enough of the noise. Whether West Ham United can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.

The dugout

Joël Veltman dropped after a run of poor form

The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.

The dugout

Joël Veltman asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

In brief

66 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

1 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Maxwel Cornet beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 43. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The terraces

Anger at West Ham United spills outside the ground

It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.

Match

Niclas Füllkrug sends West Ham United through

Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Niclas Füllkrug obliged against Blackpool. 3‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is West Ham United.

Match

West Ham United taken apart

0‑4 to Tottenham, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.

Match

West Ham United turn it around against Blackpool

Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. West Ham United rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Blackpool had no answer to any of it.

Market

Edson Álvarez hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what West Ham United can pretend not to have heard.

Player ratings

Both of them Niclas Füllkrug's — 8.88

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.88, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Squad

7 saves: Mads Hermansen was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Market

West Ham United may not be able to give Anthony Elanga what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Anthony Elanga wants continental football; whether West Ham United can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

In brief

65 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

25 Oct 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Mark Reid

21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. West Ham United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match

Nowhere to hide for West Ham United

0‑5 against Arsenal, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.

The dugout

Max Kilman says West Ham United went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Market

West Ham United may not be able to give Matteo Ruggeri what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Matteo Ruggeri wants continental football; whether West Ham United can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Market

Daniel Cummings is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

James Ward-Prowse has improved at 33, which nobody expected

Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.

The dugout

Aaron Wan-Bissaka gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

In brief

  • Boardroom Doors closed at West Ham United
  • The dugout The manager has not finished forgetting Ivan Toney's mistake
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
64 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

18 Oct 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Mark Reid damages knee ligaments — 28 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 28 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Squad

Tempers go at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Jarrod Bowen falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Match

A bad afternoon for West Ham United against Brighton

1‑3 to Brighton, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

West Ham United lose Oliver Rathbone

18 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Matteo Ruggeri at his very best

Marked 8.20. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at West Ham United.

The dugout

Edson Álvarez gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Luke Reid left the room before anybody could ask which.

Looking ahead

West Ham United take on the side everybody is chasing

Arsenal arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.

In brief

63 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

11 Oct 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Mark Reid out for 37 days

37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. West Ham United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Match

Cruel end for Coventry City as West Ham United pounce

There is no crueller way to lose a football match. West Ham United scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.

Player ratings

A brace, and Erick Sánchez takes the afternoon — 8.32

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Erick Sánchez provided it, and the 8.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

6 saves: Alphonse Areola was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Squad

Taty Castellanos in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Ham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

The drought breaks for West Ham United

7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Coventry City were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.

Market

James Ward-Prowse wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at West Ham United hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jarrod Bowen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

West Ham United get the job done against Coventry City

A 2‑1 win over Coventry City, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

In brief

62 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

4 Oct 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

Anger at West Ham United spills outside the ground

It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.

The dugout

Erick Sánchez keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” West Ham United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Match

No end in sight to West Ham United's wait for a win

7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at West Ham United has to find a result from somewhere.

Market

Jean-Clair Todibo raises the bar for West Ham United

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at West Ham United heard it as anything else.

Squad

Joël Veltman signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Joël Veltman and West Ham United agree another 2 years.

Squad

Ivan Toney in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Ham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Only the photograph left for Steven Taylor

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Steven Taylor will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around West Ham United the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

West Ham United lose James Ward-Prowse

43 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

61 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

27 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Maxwel Cornet hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what West Ham United can pretend not to have heard.

Match

The wait goes on for West Ham United

6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Market

Only the photograph left for Daniel Cummings

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Cummings will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around West Ham United the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Player ratings

Anthony Elanga runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Words at West Ham United training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jarrod Bowen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Squad

James Ward-Prowse has improved at 32, which nobody expected

Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.

Match

The goals have deserted West Ham United

3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at West Ham United can tell you which week it ends in.

Match

West Ham United come up short against Ipswich Town

Ipswich Town left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

In brief

60 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

20 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Mads Hermansen keeps West Ham United in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 15 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

The dugout

Maxwel Cornet: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” West Ham United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Match

The wait goes on for West Ham United

5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Squad

Tempers go at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Real improvement from Mohamadou Kanté at West Ham United

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mohamadou Kanté is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Late improvement for Mads Hermansen

At 27 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.

Match

West Ham United come up short against Liverpool

Liverpool left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The dugout

Luke Reid: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

The dugout

West Ham United pick somebody else ahead of Kyle Walker-Peters

There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.

In brief

59 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

13 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Transfer targets

Too dear: West Ham United walk away from Danny McNamara

$7.8M was the most the club would pay and Millwall were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.

Squad

Alphonse Areola keeps West Ham United in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Squad

The step up is real for Edvin Austbø

At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.

Market

Anthony Elanga wants more than West Ham United are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Match

The wait goes on for West Ham United

4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Squad

Taty Castellanos in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Ham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A late step up for Jean-Clair Todibo

At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.

Match

West Ham United come up short against Manchester United

Manchester United left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Edson Álvarez

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

In brief

58 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

6 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Olympique de Marseille come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and West Ham United did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Transfer targets

West Ham United bid $7.8M for Danny McNamara

The offer went to Millwall this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Alphonse Areola

There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

The dugout

Igor Tyjon says West Ham United went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 11 signed and 7 gone

That is the business done at West Ham United until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.

Market

Matteo Ruggeri wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at West Ham United hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

James Ward-Prowse out for 75 days

The medical room confirms 75 days on the sidelines for James Ward-Prowse, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

Squad

Ao Tanaka signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ao Tanaka and West Ham United agree another 4 years.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

In brief

57 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

30 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

The silence upstairs is getting loud at West Ham United

Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.

Market

Alphonse Areola puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at West Ham United, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Daniel Cummings is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

The step up is real for Mason Terry

At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.

Squad

Jarrod Bowen falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Squad

Home is on Edson Álvarez's mind

“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; West Ham United are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

Match

Swansea City take the points off West Ham United

Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Kyle Walker-Peters

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

In brief

56 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

23 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Erick Sánchez arrives at West Ham United in a $35.9M statement of intent

There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. West Ham United have paid $35.9M for Erick Sánchez, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.

Match

Chastening afternoon for West Ham United

A 0‑3 beating by Bournemouth was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.

Market

Terms done: Preston Fearon is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Petrolul waiting with a shirt. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Jarrod Bowen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

The step up is real for Mohamadou Kanté

At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.

Player ratings

Anthony Elanga beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Boardroom

Graduation day at West Ham United

5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.

The terraces

The town asked, and West Ham United paid $35.9M

Erick Sánchez was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $35.9M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.

In brief

55 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

16 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Transfer targets

West Ham United make their move for Erick Sánchez

$35.9M on the table at Torino. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Squad

A muscle injury and 14 days out for Ivan Toney

The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. West Ham United will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.

Squad

Edvin Austbø is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Ivan Toney and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A late step up for Jean-Clair Todibo

At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.

Market

Petrolul join the queue for Preston Fearon

Add another name to the list: Petrolul have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Preston Fearon. The answer from West Ham United has not changed — yet.

The dugout

Max Kilman gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Looking ahead

The leaders are next for West Ham United

Bournemouth top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.

Market

The Ivan Toney story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ivan Toney signs something — a contract at West Ham United or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

54 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

9 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Transfer targets

West Ham United make their move for Fotis Ioannidis

$20.9M on the table at Estoril Praia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Market

West Ham United turn down Mallorca for Niclas Füllkrug

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Only the photograph left for Steven Taylor

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Steven Taylor will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around West Ham United the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Real improvement from Kaelan Casey at West Ham United

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kaelan Casey is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Ao Tanaka falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Squad

Late improvement for James Ward-Prowse

At 32 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.

Loan watch

Soungoutou Magassa wants to come home

“I did not go to Liverpool to sit and watch. I want to come back to West Ham United and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.

The dugout

No hiding place for Alphonse Areola

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alphonse Areola, and the manager let it.

In brief

53 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

2 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

Pressure builds in the West Ham United boardroom

The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.

Boardroom

West Ham United put Luke Reid on notice

The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.

Market

Only the photograph left for Daniel Cummings

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Cummings will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around West Ham United the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Market

Mallorca join the queue for Niclas Füllkrug

Add another name to the list: Mallorca have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Niclas Füllkrug. The answer from West Ham United has not changed — yet.

The dugout

West Ham United keep their word to Ivan Toney

Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.

The dugout

Jean-Clair Todibo loses the manager who believed in him

A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Jean-Clair Todibo's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.

Market

The Kyle Walker-Peters question follows West Ham United around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Kyle Walker-Peters’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

The manager makes Edvin Austbø a promise

Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at West Ham United. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.

In brief

52 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

26 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

The mood at West Ham United has turned into something else

Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.

Market

Max Kilman hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what West Ham United can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Jean-Clair Todibo wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

Tempers go at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Jethro Medine signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jethro Medine and West Ham United agree another 4 years.

Loan watch

Pablo Felipe counts the days

“I watch every West Ham United game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Coventry City runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.

Market

The Taty Castellanos talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. West Ham United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

Squad

Edson Álvarez still has not settled

A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at West Ham United would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.

The dugout

Tomáš Souček has been promised minutes

A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Tomáš Souček has written the date down.

In brief

51 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

19 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Daniel Cummings has said yes to Harrogate Town

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. West Ham United have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Market

West Ham United turn down Bolton Wanderers for Keiber Lamadrid

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Market

Daniel Rigge moves on

Sheffield Wednesday pay $1.7M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.

Squad

Taty Castellanos in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Ham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Igor Tyjon out for 30 days

The medical room confirms 30 days on the sidelines for Igor Tyjon, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

Squad

West Ham United are still strangers to each other

14 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.

Market

The Ivan Toney story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ivan Toney signs something — a contract at West Ham United or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

Squad

Jean-Clair Todibo still has not settled

A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at West Ham United would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.

The dugout

The manager makes Alphonse Areola a promise

Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at West Ham United. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.

In brief

50 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

12 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

West Ham United say no — this time

The offer from Mallorca for Niclas Füllkrug was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Squad

Taty Castellanos pulls a muscle — 15 days out

The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.

Squad

Jean-Clair Todibo signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jean-Clair Todibo and West Ham United agree another 5 years.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Gabriel Caliste is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Market

James Ward-Prowse wants more than West Ham United are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Loan watch

Soungoutou Magassa wants to come home

“I did not go to Liverpool to sit and watch. I want to come back to West Ham United and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.

The dugout

Jean-Clair Todibo knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at West Ham United, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Market

Nobody at West Ham United has picked up the phone to Edson Álvarez

48 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.

In brief

49 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

5 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The dugout

Joël Veltman: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” West Ham United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Boardroom

The scrutiny sharpens at West Ham United

Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at West Ham United is running low.

Market

Jean-Clair Todibo raises the bar for West Ham United

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at West Ham United heard it as anything else.

Market

Ao Tanaka has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether West Ham United can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Market

Only the photograph left for Steven Taylor

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Steven Taylor will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around West Ham United the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Steven Taylor is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jarrod Bowen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Edson Álvarez signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Edson Álvarez commits to West Ham United for another 4 years.

In brief

48 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

28 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

Anger at West Ham United spills outside the ground

It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.

The dugout

Morato says West Ham United went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

Real improvement from Edvin Austbø at West Ham United

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Edvin Austbø is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

West Ham United count the cost of losing Mads Hermansen

20 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.

Market

Anthony Elanga wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Market

Daniel Cummings is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Tempers go at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manor Solomon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

The Taty Castellanos talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. West Ham United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

In brief

47 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

21 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

The interim tag comes off Luke Reid

West Ham United interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Luke Reid keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.

Squad

Preston Fearon is the real thing at 20

A season average of 6.58 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. West Ham United know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.

Transfer targets

Too dear: West Ham United walk away from Shayden Morris

$2.2M was the most the club would pay and Luton Town were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.

Market

Matteo Ruggeri wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

Taty Castellanos in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Ham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Ezra Mayers is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Squad

A late step up for Mads Hermansen

At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.

The dugout

A clean slate for Ivan Toney

A new manager did not pick last season’s side and does not care what it looked like. Ivan Toney has taken that personally, in the best sense, and West Ham United are seeing a version of him the last regime had stopped seeing.

Market

The Ivan Toney story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ivan Toney signs something — a contract at West Ham United or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

46 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

14 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Terms done: Daniel Cummings is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Harrogate Town waiting with a shirt. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Transfer targets

West Ham United baulk at the price for Sinclair Armstrong

Bristol City wanted more than $8.5M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Transfer targets

Bristol City tell West Ham United: Sinclair Armstrong is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Transfer targets

An offer of $2.2M for Shayden Morris

West Ham United have gone to Luton Town with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.

Market

Anthony Elanga wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at West Ham United hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

The step up is real for Igor Tyjon

At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manor Solomon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

A quiet fortnight at West Ham United

With 5 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.

In brief

45 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

7 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Transfer targets

West Ham United agree $40.5M for Jack Clarke

The clubs have shaken hands with Ipswich Town; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Rodrigo Zalazar

West Ham United asked and Sporting CP said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Transfer targets

West Ham United make their move for Sinclair Armstrong

$8.0M on the table at Bristol City. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Market

Matteo Ruggeri wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at West Ham United hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Boardroom

West Ham United still without a manager

37 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Taty Castellanos and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manor Solomon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Pablo Felipe signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Pablo Felipe commits to West Ham United for another 5 years.

Market

Kaelan Casey returns a better player

38 games and 1 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.

In brief

44 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

31 May 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

Anger at West Ham United spills outside the ground

It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Ivan Toney and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Market

Steven Taylor is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at West Ham United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Market

Kaelan Casey returns a better player

38 games and 1 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.

Squad

5 new faces, and West Ham United are still learning each other

A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.

Market

The Taty Castellanos talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. West Ham United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

The dugout

Edvin Austbø knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Edvin Austbø trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

The dugout

The manager makes Alphonse Areola a promise

Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at West Ham United. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.

The dugout

The manager comes out for Jarrod Bowen

Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Jarrod Bowen has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.

In brief

43 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

24 May 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Taty Castellanos in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Ham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at West Ham United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jarrod Bowen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Edvin Austbø gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Squad

Edvin Austbø: “I am not a substitute”

“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one West Ham United will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.

Market

The Ivan Toney story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ivan Toney signs something — a contract at West Ham United or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

Loan watch

The goals keep arriving from Joshua Ajala’s exile

5 goals in 28 games at Shrewsbury Town — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at West Ham United updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.

The dugout

The manager makes Tomáš Souček a promise

Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at West Ham United. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.

The dugout

Oliver Rathbone asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

Loan watch

The goals keep arriving from Niclas Füllkrug’s exile

3 goals in 20 games at Werder Bremen — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at West Ham United updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.

In brief

42 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

17 May 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A falling-out at West Ham United

Matteo Ruggeri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Jarrod Bowen falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

Max Kilman gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Boardroom

$6.0K lands at West Ham United thanks to Ryan Battrum

A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid West Ham United $6.0K. Ryan Battrum left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.

Loan watch

Lewis Orford first choice at Burton Albion

37 starts and a season average of 6.81. The loan is doing exactly what it was arranged to do.

Market

Jarrod Bowen linked with a move away

The name of Jarrod Bowen keeps appearing in other people's back pages. West Ham United say nothing, which says plenty.

Loan watch

Josh Landers has made Wycombe Wanderers’s shirt his own

36 starts now, an average of 6.68, and the team sheet at Wycombe Wanderers has stopped being a question. Exactly what everybody signed up for.

Loan watch

West Bromwich Albion cannot leave Mohamadou Kanté out

29 starts and an average of 6.75. He went there to play and he is playing, which is the only thing a loan was ever for.

The dugout

Edvin Austbø has been promised minutes

A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Edvin Austbø has written the date down.

In brief

41 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

10 May 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

West Ham United end the wait against Brentford

It had gone 19 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.

Match

Full time on the season at West Ham United

Position 16 on 26 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.

Match

Anthony Elanga breaks Brentford hearts

Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Anthony Elanga scored in the 86th minute, Brentford had already begun thinking about the journey home, and West Ham United took the lot.

Player ratings

Jarrod Bowen beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Tempers go at West Ham United

Anthony Elanga was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Boardroom

West Ham United still without a manager

9 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.

Match

Anthony Elanga the difference as West Ham United beat Brentford

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Anthony Elanga. 2‑1 against Brentford, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Ivan Toney at his very best

Marked 8.21. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at West Ham United.

Player ratings

One of those days for Anthony Elanga

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.12, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

In brief

40 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

3 May 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

19 matches without a win for West Ham United

The run now stands at 19, and the questions being asked around West Ham United are no longer polite ones.

Boardroom

West Ham United run out of patience with Steven Edwards

The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Steven Edwards clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Anthony Elanga

Successful dribbles: 37. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

The terraces

Anger at West Ham United spills outside the ground

It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.

Boardroom

Crisis meeting at West Ham United

The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.

Boardroom

Adam Allen steps up at West Ham United for now

“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.

Squad

Mads Hermansen stands alone

6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Squad

Words exchanged at West Ham United

Ivan Toney and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Market

Only the photograph left for Steven Taylor

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Steven Taylor will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around West Ham United the goodbyes have quietly begun.

In brief

39 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

26 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

No end in sight to West Ham United's wait for a win

18 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at West Ham United has to find a result from somewhere.

Boardroom

Pressure builds in the West Ham United boardroom

The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.

Match

Every point is an argument now for West Ham United

Position 18 and 23 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.

Player ratings

Jarrod Bowen beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Taty Castellanos in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Ham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Jarrod Bowen falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Match

A bad afternoon for West Ham United against Crystal Palace

1‑2 to Crystal Palace, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Match

Jarrod Bowen answers Crystal Palace immediately

Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Jarrod Bowen had West Ham United level again within 2 minutes, and Crystal Palace never got to play with a lead at all.

Looking ahead

A six-pointer for West Ham United

Burnley next, and both sides can do the sum. Win and the table looks different; lose and it looks the way everybody has been fearing.

In brief

38 Edition

The West Ham United Courier

19 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

17 matches without a win for West Ham United

The run now stands at 17, and the questions being asked around West Ham United are no longer polite ones.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Alphonse Areola

There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Market

Ao Tanaka wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

Taty Castellanos in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at West Ham United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

West Ham United rescue it on 93 minutes

Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. Fulham had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.

Squad

A smaller club would suit Taty Castellanos now

He has had enough of the noise. Whether West Ham United can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.

Player ratings

Jarrod Bowen beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Player ratings

Taty Castellanos turns it into his own net

Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. West Ham United deserved better, and so did he.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Alphonse Areola

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

In brief