West Ham United were relegated from the Premier League on Sunday despite ending the season with a 3-0 win over Leeds United, a bitter finish that left Nuno Espirito Santo facing questions over a dressing room that has spent months splitting apart. Tottenham Hotspur survived on the final day with a win over Everton, while West Ham's victory in London was not enough to save them.
The club now has to raise £150 million in player sales to help offset the hit to revenue, turning a miserable final day into the start of a difficult summer. West Ham appointed Nuno on a three-year deal, but the contract also included a relegation clause that would cut his salary and allow the club to sack him without compensation, a detail that now matters more than it did when he arrived.
The story of West Ham's collapse has been building for months through a series of personal break points. James Ward-Prowse spent the second half of the season on loan at Burnley after Nuno told him he would not feature in his plans and would have to train by himself until a transfer was agreed. The board was concerned about the way Ward-Prowse was pushed aside, a sign that the tensions were not limited to results.
Callum Wilson had his own falling-out with Nuno in early January before West Ham's 3-0 defeat to Wolves. Nuno later told him he was free to leave, but the board blocked any chance of a January exit because he was needed to lead the line. Wilson played the full match against Wolves and then scored the winner in West Ham's 2-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur later that month, a reminder that even the players the manager wanted out still shaped the season.
Jean-Clair Todibo became the latest flashpoint a week ago when he was substituted after 25 minutes in the 3-1 loss to Newcastle and told Nuno that he would not play for him again. He was then left out of the matchday squad for the win over Leeds, underlining how far relations have broken down inside the squad as the club's relegation reality set in. For a side that managed only brief moments of stability, the final stretch was defined less by tactics than by mistrust.
West Ham's problem now is not just that they are going down. It is that they must sell heavily, repair a fractured squad and decide whether a manager hired on a three-year deal can survive a season that has already torn up the terms of his arrival.
