Nuno Espirito Santo sack hint dropped after Charlton defeat | OneFootball

West Ham United have been heavily criticised after a dire start to life in the Championship so far this season.

The Hammers drew their opening game with Burnley and then suffered a surprise 2-1 defeat at home to Charlton Athletic yesterday.

This is surely going to lead to questions over the future of manager Nuno Espirito Santo, who also failed to keep West Ham up when they were fighting relegation in the Premier League last season.

West Ham will likely be seen as one of the favourites to go up this term, but things will need to change quickly after just one point from six so far.

Personnel change may be needed at West Ham

Writing in his BBC Sport column, Aaron McLean tore into West Ham as they’ve hit “rock bottom” with their start in English football’s second tier.

“I look at West Ham and think last season they were relegated because they weren’t good enough. They have come into the Championship, they almost need to hit rock bottom. I think they were very uninspiring against Burnley in their first game, but really that wasn’t a test of what the Championship is going to be about,” the former player turned pundit said.

“Today was a real test against an established Championship team who will fight for every ball. I know West Ham missed a penalty to get a point, but if you are West Ham at home in front of 62,000, you shouldn’t need a penalty to try to salvage something.

“There needs to be huge improvements in the mentality and maybe the personnel if West Ham hope to have a good season.”

Nuno on West Ham struggles

Nuno himself has admitted to letting the WHUFC fans down after such a bad result this weekend.

The former Tottenham and Nottingham Forest manager seems well aware of the difficult situation his team finds itself in.

“It’s West Ham, the pressure is every day,” the Portuguese tactician said, as quoted by BBC Sport.

“It’s a big club. You just see our fans – there were 62,000 people in the stands and we let them down. This is the more disappointing feeling.”

He added: “The crowd is for us and we let them down today. We were not able to do what they deserved, which was to win.”

West Ham lost star players like Mateus Fernandes, Crysencio Summerville, and Aaron Wan-Bissaka this summer, but also did well to hold on to Jarrod Bowen, so should still have a squad more than strong enough to challenge for promotion back to the top flight.