West Ham United supporters were left perplexed on Thursday when the club released its official first-team squad photo, which included three players who have hardly featured all season.
The Championship side published the image on its social media channels, with manager Nuno Espirito Santo flanked by club captain Jarrod Bowen and summer signing Arne Engels. The photograph featured the full squad, from Tomas Soucek to Konstantinos Mavropanos, but the presence of Edson Alvarez, Maxwel Cornet and Soungoutou Magassa drew particular attention from fans.
Players with limited game time
Alvarez, the £35 million midfielder signed from Ajax in 2023, has made just one appearance this term, playing 54 minutes in the Carabao Cup victory over Portsmouth in early August. The Mexican spent half of the 2025/26 campaign on loan at Fenerbahce in Turkey and had been widely expected to leave the London Stadium following the club's relegation from the Premier League.
Cornet, who joined West Ham from Burnley in 2022, was pictured in the front row of the photo despite not playing a single minute this season. The Ivorian has had two loan spells away from the club, at Southampton and Genoa in recent seasons.
Supporters react on social media
Magassa joined the Hammers for £17 million from Monaco in 2025 but struggled to make an impact in the top flight. He has not played at all this term in the Championship, featuring in four matchday squads across the league and Carabao Cup as an unused substitute in each.
Fans on X reacted with bemusement to the trio's inclusion, with one joking: "Mr Cornet, you're alive," while another wrote: "Maxwel made it to the team photo but never a starting XI." A further supporter commented: "Have we signed four new players?"
