Exclusive: West Ham ready to sack Nuno Espirito Santo this week
Nuno Espirito Santo is set to lose his job if West Ham are beaten by Nottingham Forest on Tuesday, sources have told Football Insider.
The board at the London Stadium are still hopeful that they won’t have to sack the Portuguese, but the pressure is likely to become “unbearable” if they find themselves seven points adrift of safety in midweek.
West Ham have already signed Pablo and Taty Castellanos to bolster their squad, and the hope in E20 is that the pair of new arrivals will help to kickstart a turnaround in fortunes for Nuno.
However, sources have indicated to Football Insider that the West Ham board are expecting a big reaction from the 3-0 defeat to Wolves last weekend, and another defeat would leave the boss’ situation looking grave.
Who could take over from Nuno at West Ham?
Nuno has been under severe pressure at West Ham for several weeks, and the bookmakers have already been gathering markets for who could potentially replace him at the capital club.
The former Wolves and Tottenham chief has won just two of his 15 games in charge of the Irons, and those victories came in consecutive games at the start of November.
The club’s situation has worsened drastically since then, and a run of four defeats from their last five games has left them four points behind Nottingham Forest in the race for Premier League survival.
Nuno appears set to pay the price if that gap is extended to seven points in midweek, and links towards a pair of potential successors have been growing stronger by the day.
Former West Ham boss Slaven Bilic is currently the heavy favourite to take the reins at the London Stadium, with one major bookmaker pricing him at odds of 4/7.
Michael Carrick is another name that has been heavily linked, with odds of 2/1 available for the ex-Middlesbrough boss to return to the club where he came through the youth ranks and began his playing career.
Nottingham Forest fans expect Nuno Espirito Santo return
Nuno was unceremoniously relieved of his duties by Nottingham Forest in September, after a fallout with Global Head of Football Edu Gaspar drove a rift through the club.
The 51-year-old had led the Reds to a seventh-place finish in the Premier League last term, and was held in extremely high regard by the supporters of the East Midlands outfit.
Edu’s long-term future is now in question at the City Ground, and that has prompted several Forest fans to suggest that a return for their former boss could genuinely be on the cards.
Supporters are already plotting the possibility of owner Evangelos Marinakis reinstating Nuno in the event of his dismissal at West Ham, in what would be a dramatic turnaround for both clubs.
Whether Nuno would be keen to take up a potential offer from his former employers remains to be seen, but it certainly appears to be something that would please the Forest fans.