When a former West Ham United player starts doing well as a manager, he is often mentioned as a future Hammers boss. It has happened with the likes of Scott Parker, Michael Carrick and Gary O'Neil.
Now that Craig Bellamy is the manager of Wales, there is speculation that he could one day manage West Ham. His former West Ham and Wales teammate James Collins told talkSPORT, "I can see him at a big club. Obviously West Ham are doing well, but I know he loves the football club and loved his time at West Ham when I was there."
West Ham are currently second in the Championship, behind Swansea City. Under Nuno Espírito Santo, they are expected to bounce back up to the Premier League. This is especially as they have managed to keep the likes of Jarrod Bowen at the club.
Nuno also won the Championship with Wolverhampton Wanderers in the 2017/18 season. There was speculation as to whether he would carry on as West Ham's manager following their relegation. However, he has stayed on and is the man for the club right now.
Bellamy had a good start to his Wales managerial career. He was unbeaten in his first nine games in charge. However, they ended up not qualifying for the World Cup, losing to Bosnia and Herzegovina in the playoffs. Wales have also lost their last three games to Romania, Portugal, and Denmark. They face Norway on Thursday, where Bellamy will have to try to figure out how to keep out Erling Haaland.
Craig Bellamy could have been managing in the Championship this season
Bellamy was recently in talks to become the boss at Burnley. However, he has recently revealed that he walked away from becoming the Clarets' boss. Burnley are currently bottom of the Championship, so Bellamy will feel that he made the right decision in not returning to Turf Moor.
He had previously worked as Vincent Kompany's assistant at Turf Moor. Bellamy joined Manchester City after his time at West Ham, where he became a teammate of Kompany. He also worked with the now-Bayern Munich manager as his assistant at Anderlecht. Before his time in Belgium, Bellamy worked with Cardiff City's academy.
West Ham used to be a club that did not change managers very often. They have only ever had 21 permanent managers in their history. This is in contrast to a club such as Watford who have had 17 in the last 10 years.
Managers do not get much time these days. West Ham has even had three managers since David Moyes' second stint at the club came to an end in 2024. Julen Lopetegui replaced him before Graham Potter, and now Nuno.
The managerial cycle is like musical chairs, and it is so much about timing as to when a certain boss will get an opportunity. Nuno deserves a chance to lead West Ham back to the Premier League. Bellamy is on a difficult run of results with Wales at the moment. Perhaps with a bit more experience at the club level, Bellamy could one day be a future West Ham manager.
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