West Ham swirl in modern football's vortex, with home a distant memory

Graham Potter still turned up for work on Saturday morning, even though there was no work left for him to do.

- Jonathan Liew

A team meeting was arranged, at which Potter announced to general bewilderment that he had been sacked. Potter left. Training was delayed because nobody was available to take it. Eventually the new coach, Nuno Espírito Santo, arrived on site and hastily began preparations for the Everton game on Monday.

Perhaps it was inevitable that West Ham United's big set-piece appointment went the same way many of their set pieces have gone this season. Consider the evidence. A bungled sacking. A fiesta of contradictory leaks and briefings. Chaotic performances on the pitch.

A vacuum of leadership and direction. Catastrophic recruitment. An early relegation battle. Fans in open revolt. I don't know. Sounds pretty West Ham to me.

In many ways Nuno is the perfect manager for the current shambles, which is not entirely a compliment. Nuno will sort out the leaky defence, inject some energy in midfield, put some points on the board, turn a diplomatic cheek to the foibles around him and extravagances above him. He will not become a face-swap meme. He will not go on Monday Night Football to point at a large television and explain what a genius he is. But what he will also not do is provide any wider sense of mission and purpose or give this restless and sick club any clearer idea of its place in the world. The protests may subside. There may even be some decent, stirring football and a tilt at Europe some day. But West Ham have had these things in the past and it has not brought peace, because what they lack is something far deeper and more existential.