West Ham United have begun life in the Championship following their relegation from the Premier League last season — and former Hammers defender Tony Gale believes the club's chaotic approach to recruitment played a significant role in their downfall.

Nuno Espirito Santos' side finished 18th in the top flight, bringing an end to a 14-year stay in the Premier League — a period marked by wild swings between European qualification pushes and desperate relegation battles.

Reactive rather than proactive

Gale's central criticism is that West Ham have consistently responded to problems rather than anticipated them. "West Ham seem to have been more reactive than proactive in the transfer market, taking action when a weakness is exposed," he told FourFourTwo.

He points to the constant turnover of directors of football and key recruitment figures as a root cause of the club's structural instability. Without consistent decision-makers at the top, cohesion in squad-building has been impossible to sustain.

"Who's been doing the buying? An agent comes on the phone and sells you his player. Well, every agent is going to do that," Gale said. He then invoked a famous verdict from another former Hammers favourite: "What was it Harry Redknapp said? 'They'll have your trousers down.'"

Fulham's model held up as a benchmark

By contrast, Gale holds up London rivals Fulham as a model of smart, sustainable recruitment. "Fulham's buying strategy has been far and away the better of the two," he said. "It's designed to build a more balanced squad, with a good sell-on value for players."

Since winning promotion from the Championship in 2022, Fulham have recorded four consecutive top-half finishes — 10th, 13th, 11th, and 11th — establishing themselves as a stable Premier League side without the turbulence that has defined West Ham's recent years.

The ability to recruit players who develop in value as they develop on the pitch is central to long-term financial health in modern football — and it is precisely this model that West Ham have failed to implement with any consistency.