West Ham got their season underway with a League Cup first-round match against Portsmouth at the London Stadium, drawing a record crowd of more than 53,000. The fans watched the Hammers go behind, but were more eager to direct their anger at a first-half hydration break set to dance music than to protest immediately against the board.
Journalists had placed bets on how quickly the crowd would target unpopular former co-chair David Sullivan, wondering if it would take 30 seconds, five minutes, or whenever the first Portsmouth goal went in. Following past protests involving boycotts, banners and black balloons, 63 minutes ticked by before the stadium rose in unison to chant "Stand up, if you hate the board".
Sullivan resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denies, but remains the largest shareholder. He attended the game against advice, but fans were determined not to let an unwanted visitor ruin their hopes of a new dawn. His hands are no longer on the steering wheel, nor is it the ink from his pen drying on the cheques.
He can watch, as he did last Saturday, and confide in those around him that the team needs more pace, another striker and a creative midfielder, but he is no longer in a position to do much about it, even if his son is still angling to get young lads on trial. Karren Brady has also departed. Fans brandished red cards reading "No more BS" last season in a nod to Brady and Sullivan, and they head to Burnley on Sunday to begin their first Championship season in 14 years having got their wish.
Jarrod Bowen and Manor Solomon
Despite relegation, Jarrod Bowen committed his future to the club. Over the past three Premier League seasons, only Erling Haaland, Mo Salah, Ollie Watkins, Cole Palmer and Bruno Fernandes scored more goals than Bowen.
His decision helped convince Manor Solomon to join for £10million from Tottenham. "I thought, like everyone else, that Jarrod would leave this summer and go to the Premier League, even to one of the top teams, but he decided to stay," Solomon said. "It was one of the key reasons why I decided to sign for West Ham."
Recruitment under Nils Koppen
Club insiders talk of a fresh start and finding normality. Nils Koppen, the new head of recruitment, is trying to implement data-led systems to ensure the smooth running of the transfer operation. The strategy has secured Brighton full back Joel Veltman on a free transfer alongside Solomon, and the club is on the verge of signing £22million Celtic midfielder Arne Engels.
Manager Nuno Espirito Santo stressed the priority is getting recruitment right. "Patient is a good word but it is, more than anything, about trying to make it right," Nuno said. "All the deals we want to make, the player has to come with a purpose, with a clear mindset of what we expect. We don’t have too much time but the priority is to make it right."
It has not always been that way.
"Anyone who can put those processes in place will revolutionise West Ham," one insider told Daily Mail Sport. Koppen is the fourth recruitment boss in just 18 months, following Tim Steidten, Kyle Macaulay and Max Hahn, leaving the club to address the many wrongs of previous windows.
Player departures and deadwood
Mateus Fernandes and Crysencio Summerville have been sold for the best part of £150million, while Nuno wants to offload Niclas Fullkrug and Jean-Clair Todibo. Aston Villa have held talks over Aaron Wan-Bissaka, and Brentford have enquired about full back El Hadji Malick Diouf, who signed last summer for £20million.
Todibo encapsulates the club's ridiculous running over recent years. Originally loaned from Nice by Steidten with an obligation to buy if West Ham stayed up, Steidten and manager Julen Lopetegui were both gone by the time survival was secured. Todibo clashed with Lopetegui's replacement Graham Potter and was dropped for bad timekeeping. He then refused to play in the final day survival showdown against Leeds, telling Nuno he would not play for him again.
Todibo, Fullkrug and Wan-Bissaka all missed the club's media day. Todibo is represented by a generic close-up picture of his face on the official website, unlike the rest of the squad who posed in the new home kit.
Transfer targets and boardroom battles
West Ham remain in talks with Arsenal over winger Reiss Nelson and want Chelsea centre back Axel Disasi, who impressed on loan last season. They are pursuing Ireland striker Troy Parrott and monitoring Jamie Vardy as a potential back-up. Vardy is nearly 40, but Teddy Sheringham previously fired West Ham to promotion at a similar age.
Off the pitch, ongoing boardroom struggles continue. Czech billionaire and West Ham stakeholder Daniel Kretinsky is wrestling with former Newcastle co-owner Amanda Staveley over the shares of David Gold's family, and Staveley also has an eye on Sullivan's shares.
Some behind the scenes are excited by Staveley's potential involvement, with one source describing her as "proper switched on". However, it was Kretinsky whose pitch persuaded Bowen to stay and lead the promotion challenge.
Academy players
The club, which calls itself the 'Academy of Football', failed to hand a single full Premier League debut to a graduate in five years from February 2020. That streak continues with Freddie Potts, son of club legend Steve, joining Club Bruges on a permanent deal for £10million, despite the club's reluctance to lose a player with claret and blue running through his veins.
However, the emergence of Lewis Orford and Mohamadou Kante made banking the fee viable. Orford, who has been at the club since he was five, impressed Nuno during pre-season and has been compared to Michael Carrick behind the scenes. His parents, grandfather and girlfriend sat in the stands to watch him control the midfield against Portsmouth.
Kante provides the physicality that might suit the rough and tumble of the Championship, adding to the genuine feeling around the London Stadium that the club is ready to embrace its fresh start.
