Nuno Espirito Santo makes a point after every away game of approaching the travelling West Ham United fans and thanking them for their support. But the Portuguese was stopped in his tracks in the drizzle at Vicarage Road on Saturday as those in the visitors’ section turned on him.

After the underwhelming 1-1 draw against Watford, West Ham were booed off the pitch as those in the away enclosure targeted Nuno with chants of: “You’re getting sacked in the morning”.

It was the first time they had expressed their frustration at the manager en masse at a ground. The head coach walked on to the field to thank the match officials and, standing away from his squad, briefly applauded the fans before turning to head down the tunnel.

“The fans are the most important part of our club and I respect them so much,” Nuno told reporters in his post-match press conference. “I understand everything. I just ask again: keep believing, keep trusting us, keep going and we’ll try to revert it. Hopefully, the win will come on Tuesday (against Wolverhampton Wanderers) at our ground. We need it.

“I’ve been in football for so many years. I understand everything and I respect every opinion.

“Pressure is every day. We are a big club and we are favourites to go up. We have three games, we have two points, (so) who’s happy? But me, I believe. I trust my boys, I work very hard with them. We are building a team and things will change. I’m positive.”

Nuno walks through the rain – and towards a chorus of boos – at full time (Elli Birch/Getty Images)

Former managers Graham Potter, Julen Lopetegui and David Moyes all preached patience and togetherness when they were subjected to similar chants, but it ultimately accelerated their departures.

On September 20, 2025, fans called for Potter to be jettisoned during a 2-1 home loss to Crystal Palace. He was sacked a week later. On December 3, 2024, fans turned on Lopetegui during a 3-1 loss to Leicester City. The Spaniard, only six months into his stint at the club, was sacked 34 days later.

Only Moyes retained the backing of the board, remaining a further 14 months and memorably winning the UEFA Conference League after a toxic afternoon against Brighton & Hove Albion in March 2023.

History suggests Nuno could have the same fate. His pleas for patience are falling on deaf ears, with West Ham looking anything but promotion favourites. They let a two-goal lead slip in the season opener against Burnley, struggled defensively in the 2-1 home loss to Charlton Athletic and are yet to keep a clean sheet across five fixtures this season.

The head coach had already lost most of the crowd’s backing long before a ball was kicked against Watford.

Discontent has been brewing for months after Nuno presided over relegation from the Premier League. Daniel Kretinsky, the club’s major shareholder, played an important role in Nuno remaining as head coach when others were in favour of a managerial change. The impending arrival of 21-year-old Viking Stavanger winger Edvin Austbo, for a fee in the region of £18million ($24.4m), shows the board are trying to give Nuno more options ahead of Tuesday’s deadline.

A £12million offer has also been submitted for 19-year-old FC Midtjylland winger Mikel Gogorza.

West Ham need experience and players who can make an immediate impact. It is early days, but midfielder Arne Engels is yet to justify West Ham’s sale of Freddie Potts to Club Brugge. At the weekend, the £22m summer arrival from Celtic started alongside Mohamadou Kante, but struggled offensively and seldom tested Watford’s defence with his set-piece delivery.

A dejected Arne Engels at the final whistle (Elli Birch/Getty Images)

A common criticism of Nuno centres on his tactical decision-making. After the exuberance of youth carried the team to success in the midweek EFL Cup tie against Southampton, only Kante, Divine Mukasa and Airidas Golambeckis retained their places in the side. Surely the in-form Lewis Orford, who registered two assists at St Mary’s, was equally deserving of a place in the starting XI.

Joshua Ajala scored twice in that fixture but was an unused substitute at Vicarage Road. When West Ham were chasing a late winner, Nuno made a like-for-like change in the 86th minute, bringing on left-back Ollie Scarles for Kyle Walker-Peters. It was a missed opportunity given Ajala’s new-found confidence.

“It’s hard to say that it’s positive when you don’t win a game, but it happened to us again,” said Nuno of West Ham’s performance. “We conceded first, then the reaction was really positive, the way we pressed and kept believing. Overall, I believe we were more dominant… We created a lot of situations but still require improvement.

“I have nothing (bad) to say about the attitude and the belief of the players. This is more important for us moving forward; believing in the process, the way we are doing things, admitting that the results are not happening.”

Ahead of Tuesday’s fixture against Wolves, who dropped down to the Championship with West Ham at the end of last season, Nuno needs to repay the faith shown from the hierarchy. Otherwise further scrutiny will heighten the uncertainty around his future.

The final two days of any transfer window will always provoke demand from a football club’s terraces. There is always more talent that can be added, more money which can be spent.

The conversation circling Leeds United had been centred on attackers over the past week — and then their indestructible centre-back limped off in the final match before Tuesday’s deadline. Central defence had not attracted too much debate since Nico Elvedi replaced Sebastiaan Bornauw (who moved to SV Hamburg on a season-long loan), but Joe Rodon’s hamstring injury waves a red flag.

If Leeds finish the window with the 22 senior players they have, are they sufficiently stocked until January? Are there enough players in defence and is there enough quality in attack?

Daniel Farke’s attention seemed to be on the back end of the team when asked after the match about how suitable the current group is if it remains unchanged.

“In terms of outfield players, the group is not too big,” he said. “Also, we had all players fit today and you still see senior centre-back options, wing-back options; we don’t have the most.

“For that, we will stay awake until Tuesday night to make sure we have one or two more additions, which would definitely be helpful. With the players I’ve got, I’m very happy.

“Today we found, even with this squad, good solutions against a very good Brentford side, to be competitive again and also to find a way to stay unbeaten. This was important.”

Like any sensible manager, the German covered himself. The recruitment department will remain attentive and reinforcements would be welcome, but he’s also happy with what he has in the building.

He’s right when it comes to defence. Before this season, Rodon had missed only three of 129 league games through injury. That dates back to August 2023. Everyone will have their fingers crossed that his hamstring injury does not rule him out for long, but the starker question is: What if one of the other defenders is injured at the same time?

Rodon’s injury might cause Leeds to react in the transfer market (Molly Darlington/Getty Images)

Elvedi slotted in without any issues on Sunday. But behind him there are no natural, senior options waiting in the wings. Ethan Ampadu can slot in, of course. So too can James Justin, but they are currently needed elsewhere.

Taking Ampadu out of midfield is counter-productive. That leaves Justin, but what about the wing-back positions? He is the only natural, senior option covering both flanks there, too.

Gabriel Gudmundsson returned to the bench on Sunday and might be ready to relieve Justin when needed, but it all feels quite desperate and stretched. The club would effectively be gambling on never having more than one injury in defence at any one time.

Bringing in a wing-back therefore seems sensible before Tuesday’s deadline. Before the Brentford game, however, the chat around Elland Road was not optimistic on that front. Over the course of the past week, goalkeeper Michael Zetterer aside (who signed from Eintracht Frankfurt on a three-year deal), noises from the club suggested that, if there was to be any more incoming business, it would be for one attacker.

Mykhailo Mudryk is the attacking target in the public domain. No other legitimate names have come to the fore in attack, or in any other position, for that matter. Sunday’s events might change perspectives.

If Leeds do choose to go with what they have until the January window, they will need to keep seeing impact from the bench in the way they did on Sunday. Lukas Nmecha and Daniel James changed the flow of the second half and were ultimately involved in Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s equaliser.

The scorer himself reminded everyone of his importance. He makes it look a simple task, three yards from goal, and Calvert-Lewin is pivotal to this team’s success. As it stands, his only natural stand-in is Nmecha, who does not knit play or hold the ball up as well, but showed he can make an impact.

He thrived in this return to a 3-5-2 shape. Nmecha and Calvert-Lewin memorably played well as a pair in last December’s 3-1 demolition of Chelsea. Farke’s pivot from 3-4-2-1 to 4-1-2-3 to 3-5-2 showed his and the team’s adaptability on Sunday.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin celebrates with team-mates after scoring against Brentford (Molly Darlington/Getty Images)

They will need to find creative solutions to keep picking up points this season, especially if the window does pass without any extra attacking flair. James built on Tuesday’s performance at Nottingham Forest in the Carabao Cup with another promising display.

He would expect to have finished better in one or two situations, but his pace, energy and close control asked different questions in the final third, including the build-up to the equaliser. If Mudryk or an alternative does not materialise, Farke has to hope a combination of James, Harry Wilson, Brenden Aaronson, Noah Okafor and Wilfried Gnonto can pop up in different moments with the keys to unlock opponents.

On this occasion, where Aaronson and Okafor struggled, James stepped up. Next week it might be Wilson’s turn or Gnonto’s the week after that. The team needs to continue to be adaptable; as does Farke with his tactics.

This was an excellent Brentford team, one that left a confident Leeds and optimistic Elland Road stunned at the half-time break. United cages have not been rattled like that in a while, but they responded, rolled with the punches and found an answer with their backs against the wall.

Since last season, they have traded Joel Piroe for Wilson in attack. Do they think that one upgrade is enough to find solutions as they did on Sunday, but for several months? And in the meantime, do they hope the injuries are kept at bay to keep five recognised defenders on the field?

Answers will come by Tuesday night.

The message was clear, loud and passionate.

“Don’t sell Armstrong! Don’t sell Armstrong! I just don’t think you understand,” the away end sang at Bournemouth. “If you sell Armstrong, Harrison Armstrong, you’re gonna have a riot on your hands.”

The news that prompted this outpouring, as broken by The Athletic earlier on Saturday, was that 19-year-old midfielder Armstrong, the finest player produced by Everton’s youth academy in years, was close to a move to Nottingham Forest. Wary of breaching squad cost ratio rules (SCR), the club’s leadership were reluctantly willing to sanction the England youth international’s exit for some £40million.

Everton owner and chairman Dan Friedkin was not present at this weekend’s game on the south coast. Physical attendance was not a prerequisite for understanding the depth of anger felt by a fanbase at the prospect of their top talent’s departure — a pain particularly keenly felt by the notion of a club who finished lower-mid-table last season, rather than a member of the ‘Big Six’, taking away that jewel.

Armstrong is one of the most promising Everton academy graduates in years (Peter Tarry/PA Images via Getty Images)

Friedkin and the club’s leadership spent much of Saturday locked in discussions. That evening, they accepted a written offer from Forest, giving the teenager permission to travel to the East Midlands for a medical. The decision was made — until it was not.

Early on Sunday morning, The Athletic reported that Everton had opted to pull out of the deal — citing Armstrong’s importance to the club’s project — a move that in turn blindsided Forest’s decision-makers, who were convinced they had landed their top target.

Had the Bournemouth game not taken place, giving Everton supporters the platform to vent their frustrations, Armstrong would likely be posing for photos holding a Garibaldi-red Forest shirt now. Instead, he will remain in the royal blue of Everton.

For all of the owners’ billions, the episode shows that fan power remains in the Premier League — and represents somewhat of a marker.

Over the past three years, dozens of academy players have left their home clubs because of their outsized financial importance to those teams — because these youngsters are not signed for a fee, which then has to be amortised against any sale, their exits represent “pure profit” to the selling side.

Forest had exploited before, signing Elliot Anderson from Newcastle United in summer 2024 on a cut-price deal, with the Tyneside club desperate to sell to avoid a significant penalty from the Premier League for breaching its financial regulations. The City Ground brains trust saw Armstrong as the new Anderson — in more ways than one.

Anderson was sold by Newcastle to Forest for £35million in 2024 before joining City for £116m this summer (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

But the examples of these players are numerous, and their absences diminish something of the club at which they were schooled. Jacob Ramsey’s move from Aston Villa to Newcastle; Conor Gallagher of Chelsea joining Atletico Madrid. Alongside Anderson leaving Newcastle, these three deals, in total, represent sales of £110million combined. All three, at the time, were deeply unpopular among the fanbases they left behind.

The Everton supporters’ protests in Bournemouth were a symbol that things do not have to be this way.

That said, the unintended consequence of them, discovered a few hours after Armstrong’s future was resolved, is that Senegal international winger Iliman Ndiaye, the club’s key creative force in the past two seasons, will now join Tottenham Hotspur for some £60million.

More than half the Premier League’s clubs are now American-owned — a sporting culture in which, by contrast to English football, fans wield far less influence. Franchises are moved from one city to another (more than once in some cases); supporter groups have limited recourse by which to protest against ticket-price rises; there are no examples of a fanbase preventing a team from signing or drafting a player.

Two years ago, The Friedkin Group discovered the flipside.

The American consortium also owns Serie A side Roma, a club who, like Everton, boast some of the most vocal and demonstrative supporters in their league.

In September 2024, they decided to sack manager Daniele De Rossi, a club legend from his days as a player, just three months after extending his contract. The Curva Sud at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico, home of their ultras, responded by boycotting the first 30 minutes of the following game.

“You don’t respect our values and our flags,” the group wrote on a banner. “From today, we return to the old ways.”

“Yankee go home,” read another.

Everton’s protests over Armstrong never reached that level of ferocity — but perhaps it was the memory of those months at Roma that provoked the owners’ unprecedented decision to pull out of the deal with Forest in the final moments.

Had the England youth international’s departure been confirmed, The Friedkin Group would have lost virtually all the credibility it had built up since stabilising the club over the past couple of years following Farhad Moshiri’s turbulent near-decade of ownership.

Because for all the security they had provided to Everton, there is a certain logic to player sales (or the prospect of them) that is felt rather than calculated.

Homegrown players have an outsized financial importance to a club, but also an outsized emotional importance; the presence of a local player is the string between the team and the fans. It is some shift from the big four American sports and their college draft systems that largely erase such geographical concerns.

That connection between supporters and the fabric of their club is fragile these days, made of gossamer and tissue-paper rather than steel. Its preservation in this instance deserves to be celebrated.