Nuno Espírito Santo’s decision to promote academy coaches to his backroom staff was multifaceted. According to a team source, David Sullivan and the board told him he could hire whomever he wanted, but there would be a limit on how much they were willing to pay to buy anyone out of their current contracts. Nuno understood the team’s financial challenges, as they had paid an exorbitant amount to cover the costs of the previous two coaching staffs under Julen Lopetegui and Graham Potter, respectively.
In discussions with some of his former coaches at Nottingham Forest, most of them were retained by manager Ange Postecoglou. He felt that uprooting those coaches midway through the first half of the season would be unfair to them. The team source indicated that Nuno would revisit potential coaching hires after the holiday break. That said, he was happy to promote some of the academy coaches, as he believes they’ve done an excellent job preparing players like Oliver Scarles, Freddie Potts, George Earthy, and Callum Marshall for the Premier League.
In a strange twist on Sunday, Postecoglou was sacked after just 39 days at the helm, leaving his backroom staff vulnerable once again. While Nottingham Forest’s long-term plan is to hire a new manager within the next two weeks, owner Evangelos Marinakis has told reporters that he may name himself interim manager, with the backroom staff remaining in place for the foreseeable future.
Sound like chaos? West Ham fans have lamented how poorly the team is run. Imagine David Sullivan taking the reins for a few weeks after Potter was sacked. As fans protested at the Brentford match today, consider how much worse it would be for the owner to fire a manager with a winning record because they couldn’t get along, then hire a new manager only to fire him 39 days later because he was winless, and then insert himself as a temporary solution.
The only good news amid all this is that Nuno’s staff may become available once a permanent manager is named. Currently, his former assistant coaches, Rui Pedro Silva and Julio Figueroa, are running day-to-day drills, while Rui Barbosa remains the goalkeeper coach. That could all change once the rumored hire of Sean Dyche becomes a reality.
For now, congratulations are in order for the well-deserved promotions of Mark Robson, Steve Potts, and Gerard Prenderville!