Every ex-West Ham manager ranked by their chances of replacing Nuno Espirito Santo | OneFootball

West Ham are increasingly cut adrift in the Premier League relegation zone, with pressure building on Nuno Espirito Santo – and two ex-managers have been linked with a return to East London.

Given David Sullivan’s circusmaster attitude to running the club, it’s usually wise to assume any replacement for Nuno will be cheap and not so cheerful.

We’ve ranked the 13 previous West Ham managers who are still alive by the likelihood of their return, and included Mark Noble as well.

The Hammers are not a serious club and this is not a serious piece (our friends at Football365 have you covered there).

14. Lou Macari

Macari hasn’t managed anybody since leaving Huddersfield in 2002. Even West Ham might have second thoughts about this one.

13. Trevor Brooking

It almost worked in 2003, but Brooking won’t be answering any bat signal to save West Ham this time. Nor should he.

12. Graham Potter

Potter is probably using his considerable downtime in the long, dark Swedish winters for some much-needed therapy – and not just for the faceswaps.

West Ham spat him out in eight months earlier this year, with Potter playing powderpuff football that had the Hammers on course for a Wolves-level points tally.

For a club that usually thrives under a charismatic manager, he always felt ill-suited to the role. He’s not coming back.

11. Avram Grant

Having already relegated West Ham once (and with Glenn Roeder no longer with us, RIP), Grant can always take one for the team and usher the Irons into the EFL.

He’s also unattached, making Sullivan’s antenna twitch, recently leaving the Zambia job after failing to qualify for next year’s World Cup.

But there’s a non-zero chance he’d be barred from travelling on the team bus, as he infamously was following relegation at Wigan in 2011. It’s been a charmless 15 years, hasn’t it?

10. Julen Lopetegui

Upon hearing the news of Lopetegui’s return, Jean-Clair Todibo is seen with steam coming out of his ears and acquires a sudden hatred of the colour red.

The Spaniard is enjoying the easy life in Qatar, having lumbered West Ham with several expensive flops. His unwelcome return is thankfully unlikely.

9. Alan Curbishley

Considering he was always a solid Premier League manager, it does feel incredible that Curbishley never got another job after leaving West Ham in 2008.

It was a pretty acrimonious end as well, with Curbishley successfully suing the club for constructive dismissal.

He did mastermind the Great Escape in 2007, but Lucas Paqueta is no Carlos Tevez. Has probably stopped waiting for the phone to ring anyway.

8. Gianfranco Zola

The first manager to be chewed up by Sullivan, Zola is currently vice-president of the Lega Pro, the Italian Serie C. He leaves West Ham on read.

7. David Moyes

Moyes has managed both Everton and West Ham twice. If nothing else, he is clearly a sucker for punishment.

There is a large section of the Hammers fanbase who regret the way he was hounded out in 2024 for the crime of finishing 9th.

He’d probably keep them up, too. But Moyes won’t be leaving Everton, currently enjoying their first flush of hope since Louis Saha scored in the 2009 FA Cup final.

6. Manuel Pellegrini

West Ham could appeal to Pellegrini’s mercenary streak, offering him a bumper pay packet to bring back the glory days of Carlos Sanchez and Roberto.

But it’d almost be mean to make the Chilean leave Real Betis, a club with all the soul that West Ham have squandered in recent years.

5. Alan Pardew

We’ve entered the realms of those who would definitely fancy themselves to do the job.

Back in the 2000s, Pardew got West Ham promoted, built an exciting team that finished 9th and were a Steven Gerrard away from winning the FA Cup before it all fell apart.

There’s an argument that he would have kept things going in the 2006-07 campaign if he had a fit and firing Dean Ashton at his disposal.

However, based on Pardew’s record at *checks notes* every other club he’s managed since, that seems unlikely.

He’s also four years older than Pellegrini was when Pardew called him an ‘old c*nt’. The Premier League moved on approximately 13 years ago.

4. Sam Allardyce

Now we’re talking. Like Pardew, Allardyce would definitely back himself.

But there was a mutual dislike between him and the fans during his previous spell at West Ham and Fireman Sam has relegated both West Brom and Leeds in recent years.

Allardyce wouldn’t take the job, but would let everyone know he was offered it. He’d also enjoy back-room managing the poor sod who takes the Hammers down from the warmth of his podcast studio.

3. Mark Noble

Noble often feels like West Ham’s Tim Canturbury, the sole voice of reason in the lunatics’ asylum.

But like The Office’s straightman, there must be a degree of cognitive disassociation for Noble to continue working in such a dysfunctional environment.

He’d take the job out of obligation and talk wholeheartedly about sticking together after relegation is confirmed.

2. Slaven Bilic

Unlike everybody else above, Bilic would actually be a realistic contender to succeed Nuno at West Ham.

The Croatian gave West Ham fans one of their most enjoyable seasons in living memory in 2015-16.

We’ll studiously ignore how the remainder of his reign turned into a rabble and suggest an injection of passion might bring some colour back to West Ham’s cold, dead lips.

Let him bring back the 38-year-old Dimitri Payet, currently a free agent, as well. Normal rules have never really applied at this b*tshit football club.

1. Harry Redknapp

Neutrals would lick their lips, don their napkins and bring their cutlery to feast on West Ham’s carcass if Redknapp ever returned.

He’s reportedly offered himself to the club, with the completely level-headed ownership weighing things up instead of having the wheeler-dealer sectioned on the spot.

Never the most tactically thorough of managers, Redknapp is now 78 and hasn’t managed since leaving Birmingham eight years ago.

It would also be tasteless to reappoint him so soon after the death of Billy Bonds, who never spoke to Redknapp again after being controversially ousted for him back in 1994.

There’s no case for bringing Redknapp back. Which is exactly why it would happen.