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By JAMES SHARPE Published: 08: 05 AEDT, 6 January 2026 | Updated: 08: 05 AEDT, 6 January 2026 3 View comments Roll up, roll up! Step this way! It’s the first relegation six-pointer of the season and, in more ways than one, the circus is in town. West Ham host Nottingham Forest on Tuesday evening in a contest that could have huge consequences on their hopes of survival but, if recent escapades are anything to go by, will come with none of the fun of the fair. The Hammers are without a win in their last nine Premier League games and handed Wolves, a club trying not to finish the season as the worst team in the history of the competition, their first three points of the campaign as pressure piles up on Nuno Espirito Santo. West Ham insiders insist there are no immediate plans to sack their manager, a decision which would leave them in search of a fifth head coach in 19 months. Forest, meanwhile, are on their third of this season alone but even current ringmaster Sean Dyche is feeling the heat after four defeats on the spin. To put the two clubs’ plight into perspective, consider the following: it was Nuno in the Forest dugout at the City Ground when his West Ham predecessor Graham Potter won his only game of the season before being sacked and replaced by the one man he managed to beat, who, in the meantime, had been fired by Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis and replaced by Ange Postecoglou for a run of eight winless games before he, too, lost his job. Listen closely on Tuesday night and you might just hear the chipper refrain of Julius Fucik’s Entry of the Gladiators. If not that, the honking horn of a clown car. West Ham host Nottingham Forest in a crunch relegation six-pointer on Tuesday evening The Hammers lost 3-0 to Wolves on Saturday and Nuno Espirito Santo is under pressure For West Ham, not even the most ardent supporter in claret-and-blue spectacles can say it’s not been coming or will be deserved. The repeated protests against the club’s ownership – from marches to boycotts and black balloons – tells you how miffed their followers have become and how they have seen this coming with repeated scattergun spending on a still unbalanced and dreadful squad. The Hammers have forked out nearly £50m in recent days on the double signing of striker Pablo and Argentina forward Taty Castellanos, though have seen two other forwards depart as Niclas Fullkrug, a £27m signing just 18 months ago, joined AC Milan on loan with an option to buy while Brazilian teenager Luis Guilherme sealed a permanent move to Sporting Lisbon for a fraction of the £25. 5m fee paid after playing just 18 games for the club. Callum Wilson, until recently the club’s only out-and-out striker, is also believed to be in talks to leave the club this month. Parp! Parp! With Leeds picking up form – that’s no defeats in seven now for Daniel Farke’s resilient troops – the growing feeling is that at least one of these two huge clubs is going down. And that all comes with a cost for these two huge clubs who have spent big money. West Ham have a net spend of about £355m over the last five seasons, and that includes selling Declan Rice to Arsenal for more than £100m, while Forest’s is about £328m. For whichever of these clubs ends up paying the price, just how much is it likely to cost them? West Ham made £270m in revenue in 2023-24, the last available accounts, and Forest made £190m but that will be far higher this season with European football. Relegation could cost these clubs around £100m (pictured: Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis) West Ham fans are continuing to protest against the club's hugely unpopular ownership ‘The costs of relegation to clubs of that stature are probably in the region of £100million, ’ football finance expert Kieran Maguire told Daily Mail Sport. ‘The club that finished bottom of the Premier League two years ago, the last set of data we have, got £111m. I think by the end of this season, we’ll be looking somewhere in the region of £120m from the television companies alone. That will drop to around £45m in the Championship. So that is already about £75m. 'You then look at gate receipts. I don’t think clubs will necessarily have to cut prices as far as season tickets are concerned because you’re offering more matches in the Championship than in the Premier League but for matchday tickets, if West Ham have Hull or Swansea on a Tuesday night, they’re not going to be able to charge prices to the level they have in the Premier League. ‘Matchday revenues from hospitality will be substantially down because the commercial department really will have their work cut out to sell all those boxes. ‘If we look at West Ham, they are making around £45m in the Premier League. They won’t get anywhere near that in the Championship. ‘The big issue is commercial. West Ham made £58m in commercial income in 2023-24. Forest made £45m but that number is likely to be up this season because they are playing in Europe. In the Championship, they are getting probably a fifth or a 10th of the money coming from your shirt sponsor deals compared to the Premier League because your matches are not going out to all those different countries. You won’t be able to charge for perimeter advertising to the same extent and so on. ' ‘You add all those numbers together and they have a £100m black hole they will have to fill. ’ Stars would have to leave to make sure they can balance the books. As Daily Mail Sport reported over the weekend, Jarrod Bowen would be one to make way. While relegation clauses are written into contracts, how many others would fetch much interest on their lofty wages? Forest would at least get a fair whack for Morgan Gibbs-White. It’s not over yet, of course,  even after this six-pointer. A first victory in 10 would put West Ham just a point behind Forest. Leeds and Bournemouth can still be hauled in. Put some results together and either of these sides can begin to roll up the table.

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