West Ham United

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West Ham United went down 2-1 to Charlton in their first home game back in the Championship on Saturday.

A debut goal from Joel Piroe gave them hope after falling 2-0 behind but a stoppage-time penalty miss from Valentin Castellanos ensured Nuno Espirito Santo's side remain winless in the second tier.

Thank you to all the Hammers fans who sent us their views on the result and performance at a sold-out London Stadium. Here is a selection of their thoughts:

Ian - Absolutely abysmal. League One here we come.

Mark - Lack hunger and passion. [Max] Kilman is simply not fit to wear the shirt. [Oliver] Scarles not strong enough, so defensively we are weak. Need a powerful centre-half and now. Early days but sideways passes don't win games. Also we need a leader and [Jarrod] Bowen is not that, get a leader in.

RJ - We will be every team's cup final match at the London Stadium. Will be a hard season. We will dominate teams here but will have to convert more of our chances.

Stephen - West Ham seem to be lacking in confidence, currently they are playing walking football, taking too many touches and playing safe. Jarrod Bowen is nowhere near his best. In the first half he didn't try to go past his full-back once. He hasn't been the same since losing his England place. On current form we will struggle in the Championship.

Chris - Poor again. Manager needs to move away from 4-4-1-1 and start three midfielders. Losing initiative in every game.

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Robert - Woeful. Too slow. Too many missed passes. Too many mistakes. Too many half-taken chances. Someone has to take charge - both on and off the field - before this season gets out of hand. I am embarrassed as a long-time supporter.

Carl - There is so much to fix and with a sold-out stadium the fan base is proving they're behind the team. It's about time the club put together a performance that matched it. No passion whatsoever.

Bob - I can't see any way that the Hammers will be promoted based upon what I have seen in the first two games. I thought that we would be better than this but it's the same painful experience as we had last season.

Mary - Did anyone really think it would be different? Entitled millionaires with the wrong attitude and likely the wrong coach. Endless possession but no threat. I love Bowen but we need a backside-kicking captain in midfield. The team needs leaders but we have only losers. It's been like it for years really. We won't go down, but we won't go up either.

Mark W - Absolutely dreadful, Nuno should have gone last season. He's utterly clueless.

A Barnes - We looked like strangers out there at times, but [Lewis] Orford almost rescued the game with an excellent display of metronomic passing in the second half. When he and [Divine] Mukasa click it will be magic. Without two stupid mistakes (gifting them a second goal and spurning the penalty) we would have won. Despite the boos at full-time, there's no reason to panic yet.

West Ham skipper Jarrod Bowen, 29, is reportedly a £50m target for Crystal Palace, despite pledging to remain with the Hammers after relegation. (The Sun, external)

The Hammers are also braced for an improved offer of £37m bid from Brentford for Senegal right-back El Hadji Malick Diouf, 21. (Football Insider), external

Want more transfer news from the EFL? Take a look at Monday's gossip column here.

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Nuno Espirito Santo is confident Joel Piroe can make a major impact for West Ham following the striker's arrival on a season-long loan from Leeds.

Piroe, 27, is available to make his debut in Saturday's London derby against Charlton.

"He's a different profile from the strikers we have," Hammers boss Nuno told BBC Radio London.

"He's a very good player - a talented player with experience in the league - and we are positive that he can help us.

"We are positive about all our players, but definitely Joel has a huge contribution (to make)."

Piroe has significant Championship experience, first with Swansea City before a move to Leeds, where he was the club's top scorer in the 2024-25 season, helping them win the title.

At Leeds he played alongside another recent West Ham signing, Manor Solomon, who had a spell on loan at the Yorkshire club.

Nuno, who has been keen to overhaul his side's attacking options this summer, hopes his new arrivals' experience of playing together gives them a head start.

"They were previously at Leeds, so there is a starting point already made," he said.

"Things are improving, clearly. We are happy with the players who have joined."

West Ham United are keen on Sunderland winger Jocelin Ta Bi. The 21-year-old Ivorian only joined the Black Cats from Maccabi Netanya in January but has made just two appearances so far. (Sebastien Denis - footmercato), external

Read more of Thursday's EFL gossip here.

This is a first home game in the Championship for West Ham United since August 2011 when they lost 1-0 to Cardiff City.

Charlton head across the capital on the back of an opening-day 2-1 victory over Derby County.

• This will be the first league meeting between West Ham United and Charlton Athletic since February 2007 in the Premier League, with the Addicks recording a 4-0 home win.

• Charlton Athletic have won four of their past six league games against West Ham (D1 L1), though their only defeat came in their last away match against the Hammers – a 3-1 defeat in August 2006.

• West Ham United are winless in each of their past nine London derbies at home in the league (D1 L8), losing all six last season – they are both their worst ever such runs in the Football League.

• Last season, Charlton remained unbeaten across their three away games against sides who had been relegated from the Premier League the season prior (W2 D1), conceding just one goal in the process.

• West Ham have lost their home opener in six of the past eight seasons (W2), conceding 2.5 goals per match across that time.

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West Ham United striker Niclas Fullkrug has moved to Werder Bremen on a season-long loan.

The 33-year-old, who joined the Hammers for £27m from Borussia Dortmund in August 2024, scored three goals in 11 Premier League starts but spent the second half of last season on loan at AC Milan.

Fullkrug, a German international, returns to Werder for a third spell having also started his career with the Bundesliga club.

West Ham drew 2-2 at Burnley in their opening Championship game of the season on Sunday and host Charlton Athletic on Saturday, 22 August (15:00 BST).

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West Ham United let slip a 2-0 lead as they drew 2-2 at Burnley on their return to the Champoinship on Sunday.

They conceded the equaliser in the 92nd minute, having led through goals from Max Kilman and Manor Solomon.

Thank you to all the Hammers fans who sent us their views on the result and performance at Turf Moor - here is a selection of their thoughts:

Roger - Same old, same old! This should have been in the bag with 15 minutes to go. Poor substitutions and there you go. Underwhelming.

William - West Ham looked wide open to the counter attack and if we don't solve this weakness there will no promotion. When we took off attackers we sat back and gave Burnley the advantage.

Martin - We looked like the side that got relegated. Nothing has changed for us. A lot of changes are needed - a new centre back is desperately required I would say or it will be a long season with no outcome.

John - Nuno has obviously not learned anything from last season - 2-0 up and he tries as usual to defend. Doesn't he realise that we cannot defend? If this is what we have to look forward to this season then it's going to be a long, long, long season.

Rod - We played a typical Nuno game against Burnley. We got relegated playing this brand of football, why can't Nuno see that sitting back inviting pressure does not work? Favs to win this league? Really?

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Kai - We were poor in the second half, and I feel sorry for Scarles as he had a really good game up until he gave away the penalty. We have got to stop trying to defend leads, and just go and put teams away. Fair play to Burnley for coming back but it's going to be a long season.

Mark - Same old West Ham, same old issues. Dropping too deep when trying to close out a game but we don't have the players capable of defending a lead. Poor substitutions and poor game management. We've learnt nothing since last season. Every other team will try and raise their game against us and we have to 'man up' .

John C - Pathetic game mismanagement by Nuno who continues where he left off last season. Owners must start a replacement search now! Soon it will be too late. He does not have English Football acumen.

Hazel - West Ham were great in the first half but appeared to lose their way in the latter stages of the second half. They failed to keep the pressure on Burnley by retreating back into their own half.

Graham - Same old shaky defence. There won't be many clean sheets while Kilman is there. Let's face the fact that £40m was a huge mistake, write it off and move on. Feel sorry for him obviously but we will always need to score at least three goals to win a game while he is there.

West Ham's deal to sign Republic of Ireland striker Troy Parrott, 24, from AZ Alkmaar is all but off with the Hammers now contemplating a move for Leeds United's Suriname forward Joel Piroe, 27. (Voetbal International - in Dutch), external

For more EFL transfer news, read Monday's full gossip column here.

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West Ham United boss Nuno Espirito Santo says the club needs to further bolster their attacking threat despite bringing in Celtic midfielder Arne Engels from for a Championship record fee of £22m.

He is the fourth new signing since the club's relegation from the Premier League.

Engels' arrival follows Brighton defender Joel Veltman, Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Manor Solomon and the permanent signing of Keiber Lamadrid after his loan move from Deportivo La Guaira in January.

"We need players, especially in the offensive part of the team," Nuno said after his side were pegged back from 2-0 up to draw 2-2 in their Championship opener at Burnley.

"We have young lads, we have options of double full-back, like we did in the last game and in this game, but we need more bodies in the offensive part of the team."

Nuno says he is excited by the potential of Engels, who scored 17 goals and provided 22 assists in 100 Celtic appearances.

"He's a very good player. I think he'll help us a lot in the middle of the park, where we have two young players," he said.

"We have Tomas [Soucek] too. When he returns, I think we'll have more options and be stronger in the middle of the park."

He added: "There's a lot of activity. The club knows the targets and the needs of the team. We're working very hard and trying to get the bodies in as soon as possible."

West Ham manager Nuno Espirito Santo reacts after the Hammers let a two-goal slip against Burnley in the final seven minutes.

Nuno spoke to BBC Radio London after the game and for a written selection of his quotes click here.

Holly Turbutt
Fan writer

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As the Championship season kicks off, all eyes are on West Ham as we wait to see whether we can live up to expectations.

For West Ham, the ambition is clear. We have one season to get back into the Premier League, otherwise we risk losing our best players and dropping into the depths of the Championship.

We're fortunate to have convinced quite a few of our key players to remain for one more season in a bid to gain promotion.

But with this positive news, there are high expectations around how we will perform.

I'm sure I speak on behalf of a lot of West Ham fans when I say I don't have as much confidence in ourselves as a lot of the media does.

We've seen that it doesn't matter how good a team is if you're not able to get results and points. Now, we're on a mission to turn this around and work our way back into the Premier League.

The pressure is on to start well, which is something that we're not typically known for, but there has to be a first time for everything, so I'm remaining positive until proven otherwise.

Looking at realistic expectations, I'm ignoring my dream of finishing in the automatic promotion spots and saying we can expect a finish of somewhere around fifth.

Given our number of outgoing players, our squad feels depleted at the moment, which will no doubt be a challenge over 46 games unless we can strengthen significantly before the end of the window.

In terms of level, the Portsmouth game gave us a glimpse of what we can expect against a Championship side.

Conceding first we quickly saw that we can be hurt, but managed to come back from behind to win 3-1.

For a first proper run out, it felt like a decent result, but also reminded us that we will need to work for every point this campaign.

For the first time in a very long time, I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised and see West Ham go on an unbeaten run at the start of the season.

Am I setting my hopes too high? Most likely, but you have to dream.

Find more from Holly Turbutt at West Ham Network, external