West Ham star’s ‘days are numbered’ after ‘fall-out’ with Nuno Espirito Santo
Danny Murphy thinks that a certain West Ham player is destined to leave the club soon after a surprising snub by new boss Nuno Espirito Santo.
West Ham‘s season has already been shaken up after Graham Potter was sacked from his position as head-coach on Saturday (27 September) following some desperately poor form.
Potter had led his side to only one win in the first six games in league and cup, and looked to be walking a tightrope at the London Stadium for several weeks prior to his dismissal.
Nuno Espirito Santo held talks with West Ham bosses about potentially taking charge while Potter was still at the helm, and he was appointed as their new head-coach just mere hours after his sacking had been confirmed.
The Portuguese boss made a big decision on his squad prior to his first game in charge against Everton on Monday (29 September), and pundit Danny Murphy believes that the player involved will soon be on his way out of the club.
Murphy thinks James Ward-Prowse will have to leave West Ham while Nuno is in charge
James Ward-Prowse was left out of the West Ham squad to play Everton in Nuno’s first game in charge, despite starting in each of the club’s first six games of the campaign under Potter.
The 30-year-old midfielder previously played under Nuno during a loan spell at Nottingham Forest last season, but was sent back early from his time in the East Midlands after making just 10 appearances in five months.
Former England man and current pundit Murphy spoke about the tough situation facing Ward-Prowse at West Ham following Nuno’s arrival and snub while live on talkSPORT (29 September, 6:23pm), saying that he thinks the ex-Southampton star will likely need to leave the club soon if he is not fancied by his new boss.
He said: “Sometimes your face doesn’t fit. I mean, he was at Forest with him, wasn’t he? And didn’t play, so whether he had a fall-out with him, whether they exchanged words…sometimes you can’t rebuild a bridge, if you fall out with a manager it’s just done.
“Rarely it happens, but when it does, it’s just bad luck that the club you’re at, you’re playing every week, then he turns up and you’re, you know, carted aside. It’s just the way football is, unfortunately.
“He’s probably going to have to look to get out at some point, because it looks like his days are numbered.”
Ward-Prowse will have watched on from home as his teammates took a point back to capital with a 1-1 draw against the Toffees, and their spirited second-half performance means he looks unlikely to get back into Nuno’s plans anytime soon.
Ward-Prowse has failed to ever properly take to life at West Ham
Ward-Prowse is now working under his fourth different manager at the London Stadium, despite only joining from Southampton in August 2023, so it is little wonder that he has failed to ever properly impress over an extended period of games.
He enjoyed a decent start to life with the Irons as he notched two assists on his debut and then followed that up with two goals and three more assists in his next four appearances in the league and Europa League.
| Appearances | Goals | Assists |
| 73 | 8 | 12 |
The rest of the season did not really pan out how he or the club will have wanted, though, and he was shipped out to Forest last summer under Julen Lopetegui’s watch, just to also fail to make any kind of impression at the City Ground.
Potter was criticised for leaving Ward-Prowse on the pitch by Hammers fans in their recent loss to Crystal Palace, and now that Nuno has joined the club, it certainly seems likely that he moves on again soon for another new chapter of his career.