Daniel Kretinsky and David Sullivan make stunning Nuno promise that will raise West Ham from the ashes
Daniel Kretinsky has managed to keep his name well away from the recent discontent at West Ham.
David Sullivan and Karren Brady have both, understandably, borne the brunt of fan rage in the last couple of months after a disastrous start to the 2025-26 season.
Graham Potter has been sacked and replaced by Nuno Espirito Santo, with West Ham winning just one of their seven Premier League games and crashing out of the Carabao Cup at the first hurdle at the hands of Wolves, the only team currently worse than them in the top flight.
Nuno, the only manager Potter managed to beat this season, has started life as West Ham’s manager with a draw against Everton and a defeat to London rivals Arsenal, both away from home.
His first taste of life in charge at the London Stadium will truly begin after the international break on Monday, 20 October, when West Ham face Brentford in an 8pm kick-off.
West Ham’s January transfer plans emerge already amid PSR woes
It’ll be hard to judge Nuno on performances between now and the end of the calendar year, especially as this squad he’s inherited is a mash-up of one created by Sullivan, David Moyes, Julen Lopetegui, Potter, Tim Steidten and Kyle Macaulay.
It’s never healthy to have that many people influencing the entire identity of a team of players.
It’s also never really a good idea to rip things up midway through the season and start again – but Nuno is probably going to have to do that in the opening weeks of 2026.
| Player | From | Fee |
| Jean-Clair Todibo | OGC Nice | £32.8m |
| Daniel Cummings | Celtic | Free |
| El Hadji Malick Diouf | Slavia Prague | £19m |
| Kyle Walker-Peters | Southampton | Free |
| Callum Wilson | Newcastle | Free |
| Mads Hermansen | Leicester | £20m |
| Mateus Fernandes | Southampton | £38m |
| Soungoutou Magassa | Monaco | £17.3m |
West Ham are already reported to be eyeing up January signings.
Rennes midfielder Djaoui Cisse has been linked with a move to the London Stadium, but there’s a big issue for the Irons – and that’s PSR.
Due to financial restrictions, West Ham’s net spend in the summer transfer window was just £69million, a figure dwarfed by newly-promoted Sunderland (£118m) and biggest spenders Arsenal (£246m).
According to figures from BBC Sport, only two clubs with a positive net spend ranked lower than the Hammers in the Premier League.
And despite such a low net spend in comparison to their rivals, West Ham ranked 18th in Forbes‘ list of the world’s most valuable football teams in 2025.
- 14 Premier League clubs spent more than they made in the summer transfer window
- The £38m spent on buying Mateus Fernandes from Southampton was West Ham’s biggest deal
- Mohammed Kudus was the biggest sale, joining Tottenham for £55m
- West Ham are valued at over £830m by Forbes ($1.125billion)
That makes the Hammers the seventh most valuable football club in the Premier League, the biggest-valued club outside of the traditional ‘Big Six’ and above Saudi Arabia-backed Newcastle United.
Despite the staggering financial figures that back up West Ham’s stature as one of England’s biggest football clubs, PSR rules have limited spending.
That’s an issue that Nuno, Sullivan and head of recruitment Macaulay need to fix.
- Read more: 10 most expensive West Ham transfers of all time: From Manuel Pellegrini flop to Lucas Paqueta
Nuno Espirito Santo promised financial backing for January transfer window
It looks like West Ham are going to have a crack at spending big for the second half of the season in a bid to raise them from the cinders and ashes left by Potter’s and Lopetegui’s destructive reigns in charge.
In more ways than one, it makes sense because this squad right now is almost like Frankenstein’s monster, except it’s not just had one mad scientist stitching it together; it’s had several.
According to a report by TBR Football, West Ham have promised Nuno that he will have funds to add to his squad in the January transfer window.
Billionaire part-owner Kretinsky is bound to have some involvement in that, and obviously Sullivan will have done too because he just cannot keep his mitts off the club’s transfer business.
Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood has – obviously – been linked already. He worked with Nuno at the City Ground, did quite well and is a big, experienced striker who’d be a like-for-like replacement for West Ham’s misfiring German centre-forward Niclas Fullkrug.
But how can West Ham spend Daniel Kretinsky’s fortune due to PSR?
The simple thing that West Ham can do here is to sell players.
It’s extremely difficult to say how much the Irons are in the red or the black right now in regards to PSR due to various financial factors that are often kept under wraps until yearly accounts are made public.
James Ward-Prowse is already being linked with a West Ham exit, though, with a back move to Southampton seemingly on the cards in January.
There are also some very high-value players in the squad, who are earning a lot of money, like Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paqueta. However, it’s obvious that Nuno will want to build his squad around players like them instead of selling them on.
Oliver Scarles, Freddie Potts, Callum Marshall and George Earthy are all young academy products who’d be able to reap in pure profit if they were sold.
The other option for West Ham is to go down the Everton and Nottingham Forest route – spend beyond your means, get enough points to avoid relegation with a points deduction and then build on what’s been brought in already in future seasons.
Look at Everton now, they’re flying.
Look at Nottingham Forest now, they’re in Europe.
I’m not saying that it’s something West Ham should do but it’s certainly something that could be on their minds as they look to rescue a desperately bad start to the season.
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