Bellamy Can Wait—Nuno Has Earned His West Ham Chance

By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)

Recent rumours linking former West Ham striker Craig Bellamy with Nuno Espírito Santo’s head coach role at the club couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Welshman.

West Ham Zone reports, citing Hammers News, that Bellamy has privately indicated he would like the Hammers job in the future and is highly rated inside the club. Crucially, there is no suggestion that Nuno is currently under pressure.

Of course, we all love Bellamy. His feisty antics as a player, the warm way in which he has always spoken about West Ham and his fledgling managerial career have all been reasonably impressive.

West Ham Have No Reason to Rock the Boat

Perhaps if you’d asked me at the end of last season following relegation, Bellamy might very much have been in the conversation.

But as for right now, I honestly can’t see any reason why we should even think about replacing Nuno Espírito Santo, and I certainly don’t think the club will consider it.

Daniel Křetínský pushed hard against the advice of David Sullivan during the summer, and his hunch that Espírito Santo was the right man to take West Ham back to the Premier League at the first time of asking is looking like a good decision at present.

Granted, things can change in the Championship very quickly, but fair play to Nuno and his coaching team. They appear to have got the squad over its relegation hangover incredibly quickly.

Whilst the Hammers might still be a little fragile at the back, we’re scoring goals for fun and, at worst, look like one of the top few teams in the division. West Ham are sitting second, although there are still questions to answer over the course of the promotion campaign.

Why we would make any kind of swap and rock the boat when it’s pointing in the right direction is a mystery to me.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

At this point, I hold my hands up. Nuno was never my choice to succeed Graham Potter, who never should have been in the job in the first place.

It would certainly be fair to say that following relegation, I would have been happy if Nuno had left. But credit where credit is due. At the moment, I think he’s doing a really good job in difficult circumstances.

He also had to wait until the very end of the transfer window to build a squad for a promotion campaign. Since then, Nuno has got West Ham playing on the front foot and scoring freely.

You never know, maybe one day Bellamy will be West Ham manager—and potentially a good one.

But I’m in no hurry to test that theory right now.