As the West Ham fans wisely stayed away from their soulless stadium for the visit of Brentford on Monday night in protest against the owners for their lack of investment in what might just be the worst squad in the Premier League, surely among the worst three, we wondered what the most miserable set of supporters think of club legend Mark Noble’s part in this mess.
One of their favourite sons, a one-club man who’s made more Premier League appearances (414) for the Hammers than any other player, captaining the side in most of them, took up the reins as sporting director in September 2022 after retiring at the end of the previous season.
They had finished seventh in that campaign and sixth the season before, and while a 14th-placed finish in 2022/2023 was a welcome by-product of their Conference League success, ninth and then 14th again before this season, in which they will require a dramatic upturn if they’re to avoid the drop, is quite the downturn for Noble to have overseen.
Neither the players on the pitch for this latest of six defeats in eight games who have been signed by Noble, nor those left out by Nuno Espirito Santo, cast the Hammers legend in a good light.
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Brentford had a truly extraordinary 15 shots from inside the West Ham box before half-time. Igor Thiago scored, hit the bar and should genuinely have had four goals before the break, with Nuno making no obvious difference to the comedy show that the Hammers attempting to defend crosses, long throws, or anything at all in their box.
Mads Hermansen, signed for £18m from Leicester in the summer, is now watching Alphonse Areola put in the unconvincing performances we’ve seen from him for at least the last two seasons.
Max Kilman might just be the most fortunate Premier League stalwart in history, bumbling through every minute in the top flight thanks entirely to the inept alternatives Nuno has to choose from. Noble signed him for £40m after buying Konstantinos Mavropanos for £17m, with the Greece international supposedly so bad that he watched Jean-Claur Todibo(?!) from the bench for the first half of this game.
We can only imagine the degree with which Noble was cursing his negotiating skills back in the summer of 2024 when Todibo’s loan deal from Nice was made permanent at the end of last season upon West Ham avoiding relegation. Thirty-five million bleeding pounds. Jesus Christ.
The ease with which one straight ball split Kilman and Todibo for Thiago to score was laughable.
And it’s not as though Thiago was bullying Todibo, because that would suggest there was any sort of battle for the striker to win. The centre-back was, and is, so far short of what’s required of a Premier League centre-back, and neither Mavropanos nor Kilman can claim to be a great improvement on a guy who represents one of the worst bits of transfer business in top flight history.
Lucas Paqueta is one of what we would suggest is just two unquestionably good signings in a £550m transfer spend across Noble’s seven transfer windows with his hand on the tiller. He played a few neat passes, but doesn’t have anything like the support he needs to be the creative threat he evidently can be. The other plus point for Noble is currently pulling up trees for Tottenham.
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£38m summer signing Mateus Fernandes was hooked at half time after 45 minutes of being caught in possession. Callum Wilson never made it off the bench despite the need for an equaliser. Luis Guilherme, the Brazilian teen who arrived with a big reputation in the summer of 2024, didn’t even make the squad and has featured for a grand total of 198 minutes across all competitions since joining the club.
West Ham were ostensibly chasing the game in the second half, but that really wasn’t clear, and if you’re resting your hopes on Crysencio Summerville to drag you back into things, that’s a real problem given the typically horrible end product £25m apparently buys you.
We don’t aim to muddy the waters with regard to the West Ham fans’ frustrations. The owners are the problem. But Noble must surely take his share of the blame for what those despondent Hammers are currently watching.
He’s got a helluva lot of credit in the bank, but solely on the basis of his playing days, and there’s only so far that credit can carry him in a job he’s so far shown he’s not got what it takes to succeed in. His contribution as sporting director has arguably been the worst among his counterparts in the Premier League and will undoubtedly be a major cause of what currently looks very likely to be their relegation from the top flight.
