Before kick-off on Saturday, the London Stadium announcer had clearly been instructed to make a big deal out of West Ham’s attendance being the highest in Championship history.

There was some whooping, some hollering and plenty of self-congratulation. The tone, probably inadvertent: look how massive we are guys.

It is a complicated record to set and cheer. On the one hand: fair enough to West Ham and their 50,000 season ticket-holders in the second tier. On the other: you are in the second tier.

The reason the attendance is exceptional at all is because the Hammers bungled their position of privilege in the Premier League. At best it is a back-handed boast.

The three relegated clubs have all endured sticky starts in the Championship. Wolverhampton Wanderers needed a late penalty to draw at home to Blackburn Rovers on the opening night of the season. On Sunday, Burnley were outplayed by West Bromwich Albion.

The supposition is that all three will eventually settle into life here, probably aided by the transfer window closing.

But if that requires an extra dose of faith and patience, those 50,000 disciples chose not to read the memo. As they lost 2-1 to Charlton Athletic, the London Stadium became a palace of truly terrible vibes: smattering of boos at half-time and full-scale grumpiness at full-time.

In the first half, three different people shouted the word “Movement” at a player in possession. Fifteen minutes before the end, one gentleman stood to his feet and exclaimed: “Just f***ing shoot you c***”. Welcome back to the new football season.

Now we do not quite know whether Nuno Espirito Santo agreed with that last sentiment, but West Ham’s manager did accept that his team had let down the club’s supporters with an unacceptable performance and result.

A year ago, his Nottingham Forest team lost at home to West Ham to provoke a similar message. It has been quite a year.

West Ham were almost entirely rotten. They had 76 per cent possession but quickly fell into that desperate passing shape of doom: the ball played to wingers who refused to take on their man, instead turning back into midfield.

The only alternative was worse, slow passes in their own half between insipid defenders and an expensive new midfielder than did nothing that wasn’t safe and boring.

If West Ham are going to win automatic promotion, then they will need to prove themselves capable of creating chances with lots of the ball against deep defences without leaving themselves exposed to quick counter-attacks.

That is a deep worry because of Nuno’s own history and this was a terrible start in those circumstances.

Across the three best seasons of Nuno’s career in England – seventh place in the Premier League with Wolves (twice) and Forest – his teams excelled on the counter and Nuno became one of the best managers in the business at overseeing it.

They also repeatedly had their worst results when they had more of the ball, a clear correlation that eventually became an effective strategy of how to stop his teams (and caused his demise at Tottenham Hotspur).

Even during Wolves’ Championship title win in 2017-18, Nuno’s team won seven of 16 league games with 59 per cent possession or more and won 23 of 30 with less. It is a trend of his entire coaching career.

On the walk to Stratford International on Saturday teatime, all the talk was of which players would arrive in the next week to solve this issue. There may well be several, although Joel Piroe, Arne Engels and Manor Solomon already reflect significant second-tier investment.

Of greater concern is not the players, but the system. Unless Nuno can find a way to break down defences better than he has, or unless West Ham’s recruitment makes this squad far better than the Championship rest (which seems unlikely), there will be doubts about the tactical flaw.

How much of the angst of supporters reflects the boardroom situation as well as on-pitch issues?

Were the team distracting from the chaos, fine. Was the club’s structure settled to create an environment for the team to thrive, fine. With both in combined flux, a potential for more mess.

David Sullivan has gone as co-chairman, but is still the largest individual shareholder. The independent football regulator is reportedly investigating that ownership given the allegations Sullivan faces.

At the same time, the Gold family has agreed to sell its stake to a consortium led by Amanda Staveley, although Daniel Kretinsky (27 per cent) thought he was getting it. Now there is low-level civil war and politicking that helps nobody.

West Ham has long existed as a club only ever five matches from ignominy. It lives on the edge almost by design, given the boardroom soap operas, transfer market upheaval and lurches between promise and pathetic collapse. We should not be surprised that the first setback has provoked mutiny.

But then you also cannot blame anyone in the stands for that reaction. They were sold a message that relegation, however avoidable and unpalatable, could be an opportunity for a rebuild that is harder when you are chasing your tail in the Premier League.

West Ham could get rid of the deadwood, but also spring clean the club of the nonsensical noise that has dogged it ever since the Conference League win.

It is a lovely idea but it absolutely depends upon getting promoted immediately and it is hardly a stretch to think that promotion depends upon a fast start that avoids the worst of the mania accumulating. This is a club of self-fulfilling downward spirals.

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This is now an uncomfortably fragile situation because the component parts make little sense.

The manager is not really suited to possession football. The club’s ownership structure is up in the air. The squad is a blend of expensive failures, new arrivals and academy babies asked to knit it together.

Supporters do not want to always find fault, but they have also waited a long time for anything to believe in at all.