In football, 5 years can be a lifetime. Just look back at what West Ham looked like 5 years ago. Now, let’s fast forward and predict the Hammer’s future.
For starters, every single senior squad member’s contracts will be up on or before 2025 with the longest remaining contact being the one of Jarrod Bowen. West Ham will also see plenty of departures and arrivals between now and then, so let’s have some fun and fast forward to 5 years.
The year is 2025 and West Ham United have just recently been promoted back up into the Premier League after struggling down in the depths of the Championship for the past 3 seasons. The good news, the regime of Gold, Sullivan, and Brady are gone and the Hammers have enjoyed life under their new investors although the fans still have some suspicions.
With the ownership no longer being the face of the club, the team has been able to turn their ambitions around and for the good. Who is the manager you ask? None other than Kevin Nolan who never left after his appointment under David Moyes. It might interest you that his main assistant manager is none other than Mark Noble.
The combo of Nolan and Noble leading from the touchline has been about as productive as it was when they played together on the pitch and there leading scorer… Jarrod Bowen has helped the team immensely after moving permanently to the striker position last summer.
The likes of Haller, Fornals, Anderson, and so so many others are now gone after the wages and depths of the Championship became costly both in player relations and the clubs’ wallets. Not to mention that a change over in ownership cost more than was expected.
What’s left from the senior team that narrowly avoided relegation back in 2020? Not much! Besides the likes of Bowen, only Ben Johnson, Jeremy Ngakia, and Tomas Soucek remain. The Czech international decided to stay put after his first season and became engulfed by the club even becoming the next captain after Declan Rice left after the club got relegated.
Johnson and Ngakia have become quite the full-back combo with the likes of Gonçalo Cardoso and Ajibola Alese securing the defensive backline and the keeper, Joseph Anang who has now taken full custody of the role. As far as the rest of the squad, well that where the Academy of Football finally returned to all of its glory.
Although the Hammers couldn’t keep their hands on Nathan Holland and Grady Diangana, they did produce gems like Xande Silva, Dan Kemp, Kai Corbett, and Amadou Diallo who all have worked in well with Bowen being up top. Kemp and Corbett sit on the roster just behind the every week starters, Conor Coventry and Josh Cullen.
After 3 seasons of Championship football and really 5 years of sub-par performance both on the pitch and in the transfer market, the Hammers finally seem to have their stuff together and working on returning the EPL consistency with a squad of mostly home-grown talent. The future remains unknown but Nolan’s Babies are ready to take the EPL by storm.