Nuno Espirito Santo’s rebound club was the wrong choice and now he will pay the price | OneFootball

In the 34-year history of the Premier League, no manager has ever been sacked twice in the same season and yet it seems almost inevitable that that is the fate that awaits Nuno Espirito Santo.

His sorry West Ham side lost the first real relegation six-pointer of the season and to make it worse, it came against his former club Nottingham Forest.

This time last year, Nuno’s Forest were third and no one in the club could have predicted they would meet on opposite sides of the touchline just 12 months later but a spectacular falling out between the manager and Evangelos Marinakis meant Nuno was near the top of the betting markets when it came to first sackings of the season.

In the end, it was a bet that paid out with Nuno sacked in early August but it was just 18 days between Nuno’s Forest departure and his jumping into bed with West Ham.

As to why Nuno opted for the move, it looks increasingly clear that the main reason was because it was the first job going. The opportunity to prove his former employers wrong as quickly as possible was clearly a driving force but the only problem is he chose perhaps the worst club to do it at.

West Ham’s squad is distinctly average. Lucas Paqueta and Jarrod Bowen are the standouts from an otherwise meh selection. Couple that with a pessimistic gloom that has engulfed the club and the Hammers being in a relegation scrap seems entirely predictable.

They are the 18th top scorers in the division, have kept a league low of one clean sheet and have an xG difference of -14.8. So far this year, they have given up 36.3 of expected goals, only Burnley have a worse number.

The Forest defeat put them seven points clear of safety and if Burnley win their game in hand, West Ham will be 19th. The problem that West Ham, and Wolves, have this year is there is no promoted team safety net and poor decisions now mean relegation.

The apathetic nature of West Ham is not solely down to Nuno. 2026 marks a decade since the doors to Upton Park were closed for the final time. That season saw the team record its highest number of points in a Premier League season, score the most goals and lose the fewest games on the way to a seventh-place finish. The following year, they finished 11th.

The soulless bowl of a stadium that is the London Stadium is the physical embodiment of a club where almost every major decision made in the last 10 years has been the wrong one. West Ham moving into the 62,500 on the taxpayers’ money was initially seen as a smart bit of business but further research and a bit of football common sense should have made the owners realise that a stadium with a running track in a lifeless part of London was sacrificing any kind of home advantage a team can enjoy.

It is not just the infrastructure around the club either but a mind-numbingly poor recruitment policy that has produced the occasional star but more often than not, dud after dud.

Their record signing is Sebastian Heller who they spent £45m on. He repaid them with 14 goals in 54 matches. It is at striker where West Ham have failed the most and Callum Wilson’s upcoming contract termination is the latest in a long line of incorrect decisions.

In terms of the wage bill, West Ham are 10th in the Premier League but is there any player in their squad who would make it into a top 10 side? Bowen is perhaps the only contender but even he has struggled to break free of the general malaise this season.

As for who to blame for those decisions, David Sullivan and David Gold purchased the club in January 2010 and along with Karen Brady have been behind the key decisions every step of the way. Perhaps Brady suggesting early in her tenure that the club be renamed West Ham Olympic was the first sign of trouble ahead.

For much of the last 10 years, West Ham has been a side that relies on individual brilliance more than a thorough long term plan. The second appointment of David Moyes brought success in the form of a sixth-place finish and a Conference League trophy but it was a team that had Declan Rice in it.

Since the now Arsenal midfielder left, the club has been sinking down the table. Moyes last season saw them finish ninth. The disastrous appointment of Julen Lopetegui began a season that saw Graham Potter oversee a 14th place finish. Another mid-season sacking has them in 18th.

West Ham will almost certainly go down for it is hard to pinpoint three teams that are worse than them currently. If they played Wolves tomorrow, you’d back the Molineux side. Relegation will leave existential questions for the club to answer but for Nuno, he will be left wondering where he would be now had he no been so hasty in picking his next job.