London Stadium concern raised for West Ham ahead of Championship return | OneFootball

West Ham United may find it difficult for them to play at the London Stadium in the Championship next season.

West Ham United are returning to the Championship for the first time since they gained promotion via the play-offs at the end of the 2011/12 campaign.

The Hammers were relegated from the Premier League on the final day of the season, despite defeating Leeds United by three goals to nil at the London Stadium.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s side had been improved in the second-half of the campaign, especially when it appeared as though they would get cut adrift in early-January after defeats to Wolverhampton Wanderers and Nottingham Forest.

However, tailing off towards the end of the campaign meant that rivals Tottenham Hotspur were able to avoid their own humiliation and send West Ham down into the Championship.

As the summer now comes around and a lot of soul searching at the club goes on, with an obvious need to rebuild still with Nuno at the helm, the factor of the London Stadium will become a major talking point.

The London Stadium may hurt West Ham in the Championship

When West Ham gained that promotion under the management of Sam Allardyce nearly 15 years ago, the Irons were playing their football at the old Boleyn Ground, or Upton Park to many.

Known for its famous hostile atmosphere, West Ham away was always a tricky one for the opposition but, since then, they have moved into the London Stadium – which hosted the London Olympics that very summer the Hammers gained promotion back to the top-flight.

Now, as the ground gears up for EFL football, there will have to be fair concerns about just how that may affect them moving forward, as outlined by FLW’s West Ham Fan Pundit Joe Davis.

Joe says: “To be perfectly honest with you, I think it could end up working against us a little bit.

“We’ll probably average about 40k attendance, if I had to guess, maybe 30k but who knows? It’s been so long since we were down in the Championship.

“I think it will become a hard place for the players to play in, that’s the thing.

“Especially if it’s not full and there’s not much atmosphere, whereas I feel like the rest of the Championship, with the smaller stadiums, even if they’re not generating massive crowds, they can get on top of you a bit but we struggle doing that with a full sold out stadium, let alone half of one.

“I think it can work against us a bit but I don’t think it will be too detrimental to how we play and how it goes for us next season.”

West Ham have a lot of work to do this summer

Having initially looked as though former Wolves and Forest boss Nuno would depart the club this summer, it has since been confirmed that he will stay on in the second-tier.

It remains to be seen, though, just how many of his squad will also be there with captain Jarrod Bowen surely set to be in for a summer of speculation over his future.

Beyond the England international and the naturally high, especially in comparison, Premier League wage bill of the club, West Ham have work to do to work out exactly what their squad will look like next season.

In terms of departures, Callum Wilson is due to be a free agent as it stands, while veteran goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski is again out of contract alongside Adama Traore, with Axel Disasi set to return to his parent club Chelsea.

West Ham have a lot of headaches to overcome and planning to do before they can look at beginning their ascent back into the top-flight – and the difficulty of playing at a ground that was built for athletics doesn’t appear to be overly helpful in that endeavour, albeit not impossible to overcome.

When the 2023 UEFA Europa Conference League winners get themselves into a groove and regularly winning matches, the famous West Ham atmosphere can be heard – as shown in that run in the UECL, as well as in the UEFA Europa League.

The doom and gloom that surrounds the club right now, though, means a lot of things do have to be changed before they can reignite their sizeable fanbase.