There are certainly a number of West Ham United players with a point to prove and critics to silence when the Premier League strugglers host London rivals Fulham.
Lucas Paqueta has summed up the Hammers recently, and not in a good way.
Wasteful, timid, and with a self-defeating streak, the Brazil international epitomises a West Ham United squad which continues to perform well below the finances invested in it.
Crysencio Summerville hasn’t scored a Premier League goal all season, and none at all since Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United were defeated by a Julen Lopetegui side in October 2024.
No one has faced more consistent, or more sustained criticism than Max Kilman though.
And as Nuno Espirito Santo prepares to go head to head with fellow Iberian Marco Silva, how the home boss could do with a performance befitting his obscene £40 million price-tag.
Fulham released West Ham United defender Max Kilman
Kilman was at his catastrophic worst when Manchester City cruised to the easiest of 3-0 wins the other side of Christmas. No wonder Hammers News are predicting that Nuno will re-introduce Konstantinos Mavropanos when Fulham come to town.
For all his weaknesses, Mavropanos at least displays the character to engage himself in defensive duels. Kilman, in contrast, almost appears to shrink a foot or two when a cross comes fizzing into his vicinity.
Should Nuno place his trust in the former Wolves skipper once again, the Chelsea-born 28-year-old will have even greater motivation to prove his doubters wrong. This weekend’s opponents cut him loose when he was just a teenager, after all.
“I was at Fulham from the age of nine to 14, then I got released,” Kilman tells the club’s official website. “
“That was my first setback, but I had so many more straight after that because I was going on trials to so many teams around London and outside of London between 14 to 16.
“And I was rejected so many times.”
Kilman was forced to build up his reputation from the depths of non-league, making his name at Maidenhead before Wolves took a punt on the former England Futsal international.
“All of us footballers have gone through tough times and it’s just what makes us tougher and that’s why we play in the Premier League,” adds Kilman, who is currently facing greater scrutiny than ever before.
“It shows that at the highest of levels, you need the highest of mentalities.
“As you grow older, you become a teenager, become an adult and so much changes. I think I really learned the most about myself and about football playing non-league and then coming to the Premier League.
“I’ve had completely different perspectives of how football works, how life works in general, so it’s been a very unique journey, but everyone’s story is different.”
West Ham make moves for Charlie Cresswell and Jorgen Strand Larsen
Hammers News can confirm that West Ham remain in talks to sign Charlie Cresswell from Ligue 1 outfit Toulouse ahead of the January transfer window.
Should the £22 million former Leeds starlet return to England, that would be another blow to Kilman’s hopes of living up to his eye-watering price-tag in claret and blue.
And speaking of Wolves, the only team below Nuno’s side in the Premier League table, West Ham were quoted £45 million when making an enquiry for Molineux targetman Jorgen Strand Larsen this month.
“They [Wolves] want far too much for a player who has scored just one Premier League goal this season,” the spokesman for West Ham’s owners exclusively told Hammers News before Christmas.
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