Historic Nuno speculation could work against him in West Ham vs Southampton

Nuno Espirito Santo and West Ham United will welcome back a familiar face against Southampton.

Undoubtedly the headline game of this weekend's round of Championship fixtures, the Hammers host the Saints on Saturday afternoon.

Nuno's side enter the game fresh off the back of a massive 1-0 win over league-leaders Swansea City last Saturday.

Meanwhile, Tonda Eckert's men have lost just once in their last nine league games, but were held to a goalless draw against Bolton last time out.

This could very well be an early-season meeting between the eventual two automatic promotion-winning teams when it's all said and done this term.

As such, it will be a match played with plenty of passion and emotion, and even more so for one Southampton player in particular.

What is the story of Nuno Espirito Santo and James Ward-Prowse?

This season's summer window saw James Ward-Prowse cut short his frustrating West Ham career, before signing for Southampton.

As revealed in a report from The Athletic back in January this year, Nuno had the midfielder exiled from his first-team squad.

So much so that the 31-year-old wasn't even allowed to take part in 11v11 games between the first-team group and fringe players, instead training on his own.

In fact, Ward-Prowse and Nuno's fractured relationship goes back even further than their time together at West Ham.

During his time as Nottingham Forest manager, Nuno signed Ward-Prowse on a season-long loan deal from West Ham in the summer of 2024.

By January 2025, however, Ward-Prowse had started just five Premier League games and had his Forest loan contract terminated.

"It was a bizarre feeling to be cast away. It took time to get my head around that," Ward-Prowse told The Sun recently regarding being loaned out by West Ham to Burnley.

“I came away from a difficult situation where things weren’t explained to me well enough, unfortunately.

"But I left with my head held high with how I handled it — and that was out of respect to the club and the fans."

There is no love lost between Nuno and Ward-Prowse, but how has the midfielder been faring with Saints this season ahead of his E20 return?

Where Ward-Prowse ranks amongst Championship rivals in 2026-27

The grass has certainly been greener for Ward-Prowse since swapping the London Stadium for St Mary's.

He's started seven of his 10 Championship appearances this season, scoring once and providing one assist.

Per FotMob, his 91.7 per cent pass success rate ranks him in the top five percentile of all Championship defensive midfielders in 2026-27.

Meanwhile, his 76.5 touches and 56.8 successful passes per 90 minutes place him in the leading 6.9 and 5.9 percentiles of his positional rivals.

Ward-Prowse has taken 13 shots, played 21 accurate long balls, played 35 line-breaking passes, created 13 chances, delivered eight accurate crosses and made 39 recoveries.

In short, he's everywhere on the pitch for Southampton, and has become an integral part of Eckert's Saints side and system.

So, given the history between himself and Nuno, and West Ham by extension, Ward-Prowse will no doubt be fired up for Saturday's game.

Nuno may just come to regret his relationship with the player he's shunned numerous times, as football has a funny way of writing this sort of revenge tale.