New West Ham arrival confirmed as Nuno Espirito Santo gets help in relegation fight | OneFootball

Hammers hope extra experience can be decisive in difficult battle against first Championship return for 14 years

West Ham have added Paco Jemez to their backroom staff under Nuno Espirito Santo.

The Spaniard arrives in east London as a first-team coach in a move that the club will hope can give them a much-needed boost in their increasingly difficult battle to avoid relegation from the Premier League this season.

Jemez, 55, is a hugely experienced figure who has managed nine different clubs throughout his career so far, most recently spending a second short-lived stint in charge of Ibiza in the third tier of Spanish football.

He has spent most of his coaching career to date in Spain with the likes of Rayo Vallecano, Granada, Las Palmas and Cartagena, with whom he won promotion in 2008/09, also managing for spells in Mexico and Iran.

Jemez’s playing career included stints with Vallecano, Deportivo La Coruna and Real Zaragoza, plus 21 senior international caps for Spain.

He joins a West Ham backroom team led by Nuno - who replaced the sacked Graham Potter as manager in September - and which also includes promoted former academy coaches Steve Potts, Mark Robson, Gerard Prenderville and Billy Lepine, plus Nuno’s long-time goalkeeping coach Rui Barbosa.

West Ham currently sit 17th in the Premier League table and seven points adrift of safety with 17 games remaining after dismal back-to-back defeats by relegation rivals Wolves and Nottingham Forest, two of Nuno’s former clubs, that led to intense speculation over his future in the job.

West Ham - who have only three league victories in 21 games this season and 13 defeats - have picked up just 11 points from the Portuguese’s 16 league matches in charge so far, going 10 top-flight games without a win for the first time in almost 20 years.

However, they did provide some brief respite in the FA Cup last weekend, beating London rivals QPR 2-1 at home in the third round thanks to an extra-time winning goal from new signing Valentin 'Taty' Castellanos. They will go to League One side Burton next.

Jemez’s first game on the West Ham bench alongside Nuno will come on Saturday afternoon, when they travel to face struggling rivals Tottenham in a crunch derby showdown.