West Ham United have replaced Graham Potter with Nuno Espírito Santo after agreeing a deal with the ex-Nottingham Forest boss earlier this week, but there was another intriguing option on the free agent market they ultimately failed to consider.
West Ham appoint Nuno Espírito Santo on a multi-year contract
Chairman David Sullivan had been in favour of appointing ex-manager Slaven Bilic on an interim basis until the end of the season (Pete O’Rourke), and the Croatian was even planning his coaching staff in the event he was chosen for the Hammers hot seat (ExWHUemployee).
However, despite some concerns surrounding the finances of a deal for Nuno (Sport Boom), the Portuguese has now won the West Ham job race and took charge of his first training session on Saturday afternoon — just hours after the club announced Potter’s departure.
He’s also put pen to paper on a multi-year contract, showing West Ham’s faith in the tactician.
The arrival of Nuno comes after his fairytale 2024/2025 season at Forest, where he transformed the Tricky Trees from relegation contenders to Europa League participants in under two years.
This culminated in Evangelos Marinakis handing the 51-year-old a new three-year contract in June, but a tense public fallout with the Forest chief meant that Nuno was forced to wave goodbye to the City Ground much sooner than he anticipated.
9. Sam Allardyce
30.7%
10. Julen Lopetegui
30%
11. Gianfranco Zola
27.8%
12 Graham Potter
26.1%
13. Avram Grant
18.9%
via StatMuse
Forest’s loss was West Ham’s gain, and there are many reasons why Nuno could end up being a very smart appointment.
Under Nuno, Forest became a lot more robust defensively and adopted a clear counter-attacking style, all whilst fixing their set-piece issues — which is something West Ham have been a real victim of this season.
Having conceded 7 of their 13 Premier League goals so far from corners, Nuno’s arrival could work wonders to solve this very concerning problem, and the fact he was a free agent meant the east Londoners didn’t have to pay a compensation fee.
Out of the fellow free agents linked with a move to the London Stadium — a list including Bilic, Gary O’Neil, Michael Carrick and Sean Dyche — Nuno’s name was clearly the most appealing, both internally and outside Rush Green.
However, Sullivan, Karren Brady and the board failed to consider one name — Sergio Conceicao.
West Ham missed out on appointing Sergio Conceicao
The 50-year-old left AC Milan at the end of June and is still a free agent now, meaning he was potentially up for grabs.
According to some reports, Conceicao privately expressed a preference to join West Ham last year, back when he was mentioned as one of the candidates to succeed Julen Lopetegui, and was regularly linked before the club went for Potter.
It begs the question, why didn’t West Ham consider him this time around?
Conceicao has 12 major trophies to his name after a glittering career abroad, including an Italian Super Cup triumph from his time at Milan, with the Portuguese also winning 11 pieces of silverware during his famed FC Porto era.
The coach, who once drew comparisons to José Mourinho, won three Primeira Liga titles with Porto and the 21/22 Manager of the Year award. Ultimately, his failure to qualify for Europe with Milan last season, combined with losing the Coppa Italia final to Bologna, cost him his job.
Nevertheless, he was definitely an option worth looking at, and Conceicao has attracted praise for his fast and aggressive style — which embodies the ‘West Ham way’ far more than Nuno’s pragmatic approach.
West Ham did have more candidates like Conceicao available to them, but perhaps the major worry of relegation among shareholders motivated the club into making a swift, and perhaps trigger-happy, decision.