EXCLUSIVE: Winterburn on West Ham's fall from grace - 'I had to turn their game off'

Flashscore spoke to Nigel Winterburn, who sees similarities between his side back then and the West Ham of today.

The 2003 Hammers had him, David James, Paolo Di Canio, and hungry up-and-comers Jermaine Defoe, Michael Carrick and Joe Cole, who went on to become Premier League mainstays.

Much like the current team that has Jarrod Bowen, Mateus Fernandes, Tomas Soucek or El Hadji Malick Diouf, they should have been 'too good to go down' but they weren't.

"I thought the club seemed to find a bit of stability," Winterburn tells Flashscore.

"David Moyes came in, they won a European final, and it looked like they were establishing themselves as a solid Premier League team. But somewhere along the line, they seem to have taken their eye off the ball. I’m not at West Ham now and don’t follow them intensely, but from my view, it looks like their recruitment hasn’t quite kept pace with what’s needed in the Premier League," he believes.

The former left-back thinks the Hammers are living through an experience similar to the one he had in 2003. No matter what you do, how hard you try, you just can't get the result.

"You start well at home for 20 minutes, but if you don’t score, then one mistake and you concede a goal, and immediately you sense 'Here we go again'. The crowd’s deflated, the players feel it, and that momentum just disappears," he explains.

West Ham seemed to have a good run going heading into the clutch part of the season, but in the last few weeks, they've lost their way again with three defeats on the bounce.

"Honestly, I watched half an hour of their last game, and I turned it off... Not because I didn’t want to watch, but because they looked like a team that thought they were already relegated. It reminded me a lot of the team I played in. People can look at the squad I was part of. It shows you’re never too good to go down," Winterburn says.

To Winterburn, Tottenham look more organised and with "a bit more belief than West Ham" ever since appointing Roberto De Zerbi as the head coach. Perhaps the mentality of the team is an issue as well...

"For example, Jarrod Bowen is a player I really like, but even he seems to have dropped off a bit lately. That's what happens when you’re asking one guy to carry you every single week, it’s tough.

"Football isn’t just about ability, it’s about mental strength. Watching the team the other night, I didn't see that strength," the two-time Premier League winner adds.

West Ham currently sit two points behind Tottenham. On Sunday, the final matchday of the season, they need to beat Leeds and hope Tottenham won't take a single point against Everton.

"Sometimes, in that last game, anything can happen. Both teams are at home, the crowd’s tense, rumors fly about what’s happening at the other grounds, nobody knows for sure. But they’re in this position for a reason, same as my team back then. Simply put: they haven’t been good enough over the 38 games. If they go down, it’s because they haven’t done enough. If they stay up, they’ll count themselves lucky," Winterburn concludes.