West Ham’s alarm at their recent slump has raised doubts over the future of Mario Husillos, the club’s director of football and one of Manuel Pellegrini’s closest allies.
Pellegrini is in no danger of being sacked, with West Ham determined to back their manager despite sliding into 13th after picking up two points from their past five games, but questions are being asked about Husillos’s role. There is unhappiness with the Argentinian’s work in the transfer market last summer and he faces a fight to retain ultimate responsibility for identifying signings in January. After that, the club may look to review Husillos’s position.
West Ham, who performed shambolically during last Saturday’s 3-2 home defeat by Newcastle, broke their transfer record when they signed Sébastien Haller from Eintracht Frankfurt and they expect the £45m striker to come good despite struggling in front of goal recently. Yet eyebrows have been raised at two of Husillos’s picks. Pablo Fornals, a £24m signing from Villarreal, is yet to make an impact and the Spanish goalkeeper Roberto Jiménez has failed to impress while deputising for Lukasz Fabianski, who could be out until the new year with a hip injury.
Fornals is adjusting to the pace of English football but it is debatable whether West Ham, who visit Burnley on Saturday, needed to sign the 23-year-old Spaniard. Pellegrini wanted a commanding central midfielder at the start of the summer and West Ham pushed hard to sign André Gomes from Barcelona. Gomes joined Everton instead.
The messaging changed after West Ham missed out on the Portugal midfielder. They switched the emphasis to attack and pushed through the signing of Fornals, a creative midfielder, even though they had Felipe Anderson, Manuel Lanzini, Robert Snodgrass and Andriy Yarmolenko in those positions.
Fornals has started four league games and a lack of robustness in central midfield has remained an issue. West Ham did not replace Pedro Obiang or Edimilson Fernandes after selling them to Sassuolo and Mainz respectively and there is little depth behind Declan Rice and Mark Noble. Carlos Sánchez, the 33-year-old Colombian midfielder, has no future at the club and Jack Wilshere, who has 18 months left on a contract worth close to £100,000 a week, is rarely fit.
It has not helped that Fabianski has been out since going off injured against Bournemouth on 28 September. Fabianski’s previous No 2, Adrián, joined Liverpool on a free last summer and Roberto has been a disaster.
The 33-year-old did not play a league game for Espanyol last season but he played 34 times when Málaga were relegated from La Liga in 2018. Husillos left Málaga at the end of that season and joined West Ham on Pellegrini’s recommendation. The London Stadium club’s board had wanted to make Eduardo Macià their director of football but went with their new manager’s choice instead.
Husillos has struggled to convince West Ham of his worth and the signing of Roberto has heightened doubts over his judgment. There were misgivings about Roberto when West Ham lost 4-0 to Oxford United in the Carabao Cup in September and he has performed poorly since stepping in for Fabianski, making costly errors in defeats by Everton and Newcastle.
The slump has hit West Ham’s hopes of breaking into the top six but they have faith in Pellegrini, whose £7m-a-year contract runs out in the summer of 2021. At the same time there are concerns over the former Manchester City manager’s tactics and team selections. Pablo Zabaleta, the 34-year-old right-back, was repeatedly exposed against Newcastle and there is irritation at the failure to get the best out of Haller, who has scored once in his past eight games.
West Ham have a tough run after the international break, with home games against Arsenal and Tottenham and trips to Chelsea and Wolves set to test their faith in Pellegrini. They will make decisions next month on whether they need to spend in January.
Uncertainty over Conor Coventry’s future poses another problem for West Ham. The 19-year-old midfielder’s contract runs out at the end of the season and he is unhappy with the terms on offer. The Republic of Ireland Under-21 international is attracting interest from several clubs and could leave in January.