West Ham ran out of patience with Nuno Espírito Santo after deciding their promotion campaign needs a different man at the wheel.
The Portuguese was sacked this morning following successive home defeats, ending his chance to repair the damage of last season’s Premier League relegation.
Saturday’s 3-1 loss to West Brom proved his final match, and it followed a 3–2 defeat by Southampton, leaving the Irons eighth in the Championship after 13 games.
That was hardly the return West Ham had wanted from a squad expected to mount an immediate challenge for a place back in the top flight.
Six league wins have left them six points behind leaders Middlesbrough and four adrift of second-placed Swansea, and West Ham said a review of the season’s opening months had convinced them a change was needed to protect their targets.
Nuno arrived in September 2025 after Graham Potter’s departure, with his first task to steer the club away from relegation trouble.
He could not finish that job, but West Ham nevertheless kept him for the Championship campaign, giving him another opportunity to build a team capable of delivering the results they needed.
|
Nuno’s West Ham managerial record |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Competition |
Played |
Won |
Drawn |
Lost |
Win rate |
|
Premier League |
33 |
9 |
9 |
15 |
27.3% |
|
Championship |
13 |
6 |
4 |
3 |
46.2% |
|
FA Cup |
4 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
50.0% |
|
League Cup |
3 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
66.7% |
|
Overall |
53 |
19 |
15 |
19 |
35.8% |
There were moments when that decision looked more promising, as Nuno collected September’s Manager of the Month award, while emphatic 6-0 victories over Wrexham and Lincoln showed how dangerous the Hammers could be.
Yet the big wins did not turn into sustained control of the promotion race, and the recent home results have been particularly damaging.
Jarrod Bowen’s equaliser against West Brom offered a route back into Saturday’s game, only for the visitors to score twice after the break.
Nuno admitted afterwards that the performance had fallen short and that West Ham were conceding too easily. His team needed a response, but he won’t be the manager trying to produce it.
Rui Pedro Silva and Rui Barbosa have also departed. With Cardiff and Blackburn away before the international break, West Ham have little time to reset.
West Ham agree Scott Parker deal after sacking Nuno
According to David Ornstein, West Ham have already agreed a deal with Scott Parker to take over, bringing a former favourite back towards the London Stadium dugout.
GiveMeSport also reports that an agreement is in place, with the hope that Parker can be installed before Wednesday’s trip to Cardiff City.
The appointment had not been formally confirmed in West Ham’s initial announcement, which placed squad preparations in the hands of Mark Noble, Steve Potts and Gerard Prenderville.
Parker’s appeal goes well beyond his history in claret and blue, as he has already won Championship promotion with Fulham, Bournemouth and Burnley.
Those successes came in 2020, 2022 and 2025, giving West Ham a ‘class‘ candidate with repeated experience of getting different squads through this division.
For a club whose immediate priority is getting back into the Premier League, that record offers a clear explanation for the choice.
Parker has been available since leaving Burnley in April, making a quick appointment possible without having to prise him away from another club.
He also knows what West Ham means to its supporters, having played for the Irons between 2007 and 2011 and won three consecutive Hammer of the Year awards.
