Areola's wife blames Nuno for goalkeeper missing world cup

West Ham United goalkeeper Areola's wife has publicly criticized manager Nuno on social media.

Despite West Ham United's 3-0 victory over Leeds United on Sunday, they were still relegated from the Premier League. After Tottenham's 1-0 win over Everton, De Zerbi's team narrowly avoided relegation, finishing 17th.

After Nuno took over from Potter in mid-September 2025, he had replaced Hermansen with Areola as West Ham's number one goalkeeper. Areola had started for West Ham in the 2023 Europa Conference League final and won the title with the team.

However, in January this year, Areola made several noticeable mistakes in matches against Brighton and Nottingham Forest, and was subsequently dropped, with Hermansen returning to goal.

Now, Nuno has been criticized by Areola's wife, Marion Valette. She first posted a photo of Areola holding the Europa Conference League trophy and wrote: "From trophy to relegation. Thanks to Potter for the start of the season, and thanks to Nuno for the end of the season."

She then posted a photo of her ticket from West Ham's Europa Conference League final victory over Fiorentina, accompanied by a broken heart emoji.

In another post, she shared a photo of Areola holding two Premier League Save of the Month awards and wrote: "Dropped for no reason at the beginning of the season... The team had a very bad start, then he played 20 games, and suddenly he was told 'I'm really sorry, you won't be starting...' 'Why?' 'No particular reason, but I'm sorry.'"

She also shared a data chart showing Areola had the highest save rate per 90 minutes in the Premier League. She captioned it: "Very sad for the fans, very frustrated for the family, but no matter what, we are always proud of you."

Afterward, she continued to post photos of Areola holding multiple trophies and individual awards throughout his career, and shared three highlight reels of his performances for West Ham. The last post was a clip of Areola playing for the French national team, with Marion writing below: "No World Cup this year, thank you, coach Nuno."

The 33-year-old Areola was not selected for France's upcoming World Cup squad, but he was included in Deschamps' French squad for the 2018 World Cup in Russia and also in the 2024 European Championship squad.

Areola joined West Ham on loan from Paris Saint-Germain in July 2021 and made the move permanent a year later.

It is currently unclear whether Areola will get another chance in the Championship, or whether Nuno will still be managing West Ham at that time. When asked about his future after relegation, the West Ham manager did not give a direct answer.

Nuno said: "This is not about me. We are in a difficult position, West Ham must return to the Premier League. But now we have to go through this sad period and understand the fans' disappointment and anger."

When asked if he planned to discuss his future with West Ham, Nuno said: "You keep asking me this question, but my mind is not on that, do you understand? Today, tomorrow, if we have a press conference, next time, of course we can talk about it. But today, what we need to do is understand how difficult this is."

Nuno's uncertain future further exacerbates West Ham's current instability. West Ham reported a loss of £104.2 million in the last financial year, and relegation will inevitably lead to player sales. Captain Bowen and midfielder Matheus Fernandes could both leave, the latter having only joined last summer from Southampton for approximately €42 million.