West Ham United building ‘something special’ – Kevin Nolan
Kevin Nolan is now confident that West Ham United have managed to turn a corner after a slow start to the 2022-23 Premier League season.
The Irons’ were in the bottom three at the beginning of the season but recent wins have seen them climb out of trouble before Sunday’s (30 October) clash with Manchester United.
Nolan, David Moyes’ assistant manager, spoke to the BBC’s Football Daily podcast and host Darren Fletcher about their start to the season and gave special praise to Nayef Aguerd.
“To be honest Fletch, it’s been quite difficult in terms of the high number of turnover we had,” Nolan said. “I know we spent a lot of money in the summer but if you look back at all our past windows we’ve never really spent the amount of money that we should have.
“We’ve now got to group these lads together in a short space of time and then we lost one of our main assets in Nayef Aguerd, he played 75 minutes in the Europa League and has been absolutely fantastic.
“You can just feel that something special is going to happen but it just takes time for it all to gel and then we lost Paqueta and Bowen and sometimes it feels like we’re just hitting another bump in the road.
“There is a belief in this camp within the lads that we’re on our way now and hopefully this is going to be the start of a nice run.”
Patience
It seems as if Nolan and the rest of the staff and squad at West Ham are rightly being realistic with their ambitions this season which should be good enough to appease the fans.
This might be a year where the league position takes a step back but it could also be the foundation for a huge leap forward next season once the squad has been able to properly settle into their new environment.
There are still some positions that might need a freshen-up in the coming transfer windows and that’s without mentioning any players who could end up leaving for a new challenge.
But the building blocks are in place now for Moyes and West Ham to begin their resurgence up the Premier League and maybe even challenge for a Champions League place in 2023-24.
Aguerd will be a player who is likely to be critical to that objective and if he plays like he did against Silkeborg then he will fit in just fine at the London Stadium.