Antonio admits he wanted West Ham relegated after being released post-crash

Michail Antonio, West Ham’s all-time top Premier League goalscorer, has admitted he wanted the club to be relegated after they released him in June 2025 — a decision that followed his near-fatal car crash in December 2024.

Speaking on Capital XTRA Breakfast, the 36-year-old said he felt the club owed him security after a decade of consistent service, and that relegation was the only way the owners would “feel his pain” when that support did not materialise. West Ham were indeed relegated from the Premier League this season.

“I played basically every week for 10 years straight… most Premier League goals for West Ham. It wasn’t like I was a squad player,” Antonio said. “Then I get in a car crash, [so] I’m thinking that they look after me, because they said they probably will give me something. Then at the end of the season, they didn’t.”

“I was like, the only way for the owners to feel my pain is by them getting relegated. So, I was like, ‘You know what, I want the club to get relegated.’”

Antonio’s contract expired at the end of the 2024-25 season and was not renewed, ending a long association with the East London club that had made him their record Premier League scorer. The car crash, which he described as near-fatal, required a prolonged period of rehabilitation and ultimately cut short his time at the club.

However, Antonio revealed that he worked through his resentment with the help of therapy and the Bible, and that by the time West Ham’s relegation battle reached its conclusion — a decisive defeat to Tottenham Hotspur — he had already changed his position.

“When I released [those feelings], and then I saw that they were struggling, and thinking about them getting relegated, I was like, ‘I actually don’t want that to happen,’” he said. “Because at the end of the day, I’ve got my boys there. I cared for the fans and stuff like that. So, I kind of was like, ‘Oh, come on, boys!’”

The admission offers a candid look at the breakdown of Antonio’s relationship with the club’s ownership in the months following his crash, and the personal process he went through to move past it.