West Ham United enter the new Women's Super League season aiming to build on a hard-fought recovery, after a turbulent 2025-26 campaign that saw the club change managers midway through the year. Guardian writers have tipped the Hammers to finish 11th this term, one place below their 10th-place finish last season, though the club's summer business suggests genuine ambition to improve on that projection.
West Ham's previous season threatened to spiral out of control by December, when the team had managed just one win in 11 league matches. That run of results cost Rehanne Skinner her job, with reports suggesting she had lost the support of the dressing room. Former Italy forward Rita Guarino was brought in to stabilise the situation, though her start was far from smooth — a 5-0 defeat to Chelsea greeted her arrival in the dugout.
Guarino gradually got her ideas across, however, and West Ham responded with back-to-back victories over Newcastle in the FA Cup and Leicester in the league. A dramatic 3-2 win over Brighton followed, along with battling draws against Manchester United and London City Lionesses. In total, the Hammers picked up 14 points from their final 11 WSL fixtures, finishing the campaign with 19 points and a top-half berth ahead of both Liverpool and Leicester.
The summer brought major upheaval, with 14 players leaving the club. Notable departures included forward Shekiera Martinez, who moved to Tottenham, Katrina Gorry, who opted to step away from football for a period, and defender Shelina Zadorsky, who left upon the expiry of her contract to join AFC Toronto.
Despite fears the exodus might weaken the squad, West Ham responded with an active transfer window, bringing in ten new faces. Forwards Kelly Gago and Ebony Salmon arrived from Everton and Aston Villa respectively, while the defensive line was strengthened by the permanent signing of loanee Estelle Cascarino, along with Nadine Riesen from Eintracht Frankfurt and Laia Codina from Arsenal. The club also secured promising English talents Sienna Wareing, formerly of Manchester United, and Niamh Peacock, who joined from Arsenal.
Gago, who scored 10 goals in 30 appearances for Everton before requesting a transfer in January, expressed enthusiasm about her move. "The family feel of the club really appealed to me and I'm excited to join that family," she said. "I'm going to give everything in order to help the team reach our ambitions and I'm really looking forward to getting started."
Defender Codina also spoke warmly of her early discussions with Guarino, telling the BBC: "I remember having my first conversation with Rita. It was at the beginning of everything. I had my agent next to me and I was like: 'Wow.' The feeling that I got in this meeting is what I want in my future; it is what I want for my next steps."
Questions remain, however, about the club's broader commitment to the women's team. West Ham have not published detailed financial figures and, according to Football Association data, were the WSL's lowest spenders on agents' fees in the year to February 2026, at £97,000 — one of only two clubs, alongside Manchester United, to reduce spending year on year. The team also continues to play home matches at Dagenham and Redbridge's Victoria Road ground rather than the London Stadium, a situation unchanged since September 2019.
On the pitch, forward Inès Belloumou is expected to be a player to watch after impressing at the Women's Africa Cup of Nations with Algeria, where she was named in the team of the tournament and scored a decisive penalty in the third-place shootout.
Speaking after signing a contract extension, forward Viviane Asseyi outlined the club's targets for the campaign. "I want to put the club in the highest position in the table and go as far as we can in the cups," she said. "For me, the WSL is the best league in the world at the moment and anything can happen. Anything is possible. We need to have a lot of consistency, which is not easy, but it's why we work hard every day."
Based on reporting from Guardian Football.