By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X).
I don’t know whether Daniel Kretinsky owns a crystal ball, but his decision to retain Nuno Espírito Santo as West Ham manager is beginning to look like a masterstroke.
With the club currently in limbo, uncertainty surrounding the ownership, executive positions left unfilled and no Director of Football in place, Nuno may well provide the one piece of continuity West Ham desperately need right now.
At the time of his reappointment on 26th May, I have to admit I wasn’t overly impressed by the speed of the decision.
After all, the jury was still very much out on Nuno as far as I was concerned.
Whilst it was impressive to claw back a seven-point deficit and drag West Ham from the relegation places into a genuine survival battle that lasted until the final day of the season, it also felt like it had taken him far too long to get going.
Added to that, even after finding his preferred system and settled team, there were too many examples of tactical tinkering and questionable selection decisions which cost West Ham valuable points, particularly against Newcastle and Crystal Palace.
For those reasons, I felt the club needed to think long and hard before reappointing a manager who had ultimately failed to keep us in the Premier League.
Hindsight Changes Everything
Hindsight, however, is a wonderful thing.
Clearly, Kretinsky knew West Ham were about to enter a period of turmoil following David Sullivan’s resignation, something which only a handful of people would have known in advance.
Viewed through that lens, the decision to retain Nuno begins to make a lot more sense.
As things stand today, Espírito Santo is one of the very few constants remaining at the football club.
With no Director of Football and significant uncertainty surrounding who is actually making key decisions behind the scenes, West Ham at least have one person focused on preparing the team for next season.
The Alternative Doesn’t Bear Thinking About
Espirito Santo
The alternative hardly bears thinking about.
Imagine appointing a new manager only for him to arrive and immediately find himself caught up in a chairman’s resignation, ownership uncertainty and a club-wide power struggle.
It’s difficult enough preparing for a Championship campaign without that added chaos.
At least Nuno understands the squad, knows the problems and has already begun planning for the season ahead.
That doesn’t mean he was necessarily the perfect choice.
Nor does it erase the mistakes made last season.
But given the events that have unfolded since his reappointment, I think Kretinsky’s decision to retain him looks increasingly sensible.
For that reason alone, providing some continuity at a time when almost everything else at West Ham appears uncertain was probably the right call.
So who does Nuno talk to now. Not Brady and Sullivan. Is all his communication with Kretinsky or the guy that took over from Brady?
Hmmm, retain Nuno whose defensive ‘experiments’ lost us enough points to get relegated, or ask Noble to hold the reins for a year and play a straightforward 4-4-2? I know which I’d take.
Agree Gonzo. Question marks remain but equally he has proven his capabilities in some respects.
A further point is who would have been the individual who would be interviewing managers?
Not Sullivan, presumably not an interim CEO, surely not Sullivan’s kids.
Kretinsky doesn’t appear to be a hands on shareholder and isn’t a Director for the football club entity.
The club is in a seriously worrying position at the moment and any stability on the football front is welcome pending the executive/financial situation being resolved.
Nuno was the wrong man 3 weeks ago and he’s still the wrong man today. Sullivan’s issues don’t alter the need for change rather than continuation. It could be different if the players were staying, but they’re not! The only continuation will be the bad tactics and poor substitutions. The only thing Nuno really got right was not playing and getting rid of unathletic players. Nuno would be a much better choice as a Director of Football – provided he isn’t aligned with 1 particular agency.
Lots of suggestions what Nuno and Kretinsky could do.
Related to Kretinsky and stadium this points to long term not something over next couple of months.
Along with Sullivan playing hard ball with his shares.
Now that certain facts have been disclosed there’s FA, government and various other parties involved.
It appears to have very complicated.
Most important and needs immediate attention is out/in players and DoF.
Going forward looks to hinge on Kretinskys £90m donation to the pot.
Get Fernandez sold added to the £90m and this will pave the way. £180m will help saving some current players.
He can’t make decisions based on stadium as this will take us into at least 2027.
Most of this is short term thinking. I don’t want to see West ham bounce back up to the PL and then find they still have the same people, same setup and same thinking that has just cost them so much, and a lot of the necessary progress is dependent on how well Nuno plays with others. Who will choose and appoint the DoF? Is Kretinsky going to get involved or sub out the re-org? Will we have another Steidten – Moyes working relationship and if so, who is going to sort that out. These are all the things everyone has attributed the club’s failure to, and they need to start at the top and work down through the ranks. Sullivans departure was a fortuitous step in the right direction, but what is the next most important move for long term improvement?
He took Wolves up as champions is a been there and done it that should not be overlooked.
I agree Gonzo,
If we have a good squad Nuno has proved he will get them working hard and playing as a team, He should also be able to avoid questions unrelated to football, I hope he dispenses with 3 at the back and sticks to 442 or 433 we are better set up to score with more pressing from the front and it was the reason we gave ourselves a chance of defying the odds.
I think he’s capable of building something stable and effective at the club, provided he gets in the right people to help him. His judgment has at times left us all wondering…but I wouldn’t be surprised if he does well next season. Hoping he isn’t in the mean time made an offer he can’t refuse.
Was not a big fan of NES by end of season, but he fully deserves his chance – he has really earned it and credit to him for that. Not a fan of his defensive setups with so many lost points, lack of ingenuity & initiative upfront, flair midfielders told to hold position, but this does not have to be written in stone and he has previously corrected mistakes he has made.
Don’t want to keep chucking managers either, some of the best take a long time to sort it out. In fact a couple of seasons is not long, not at WHU which is not plain sailing. Maybe he will need 3 seasons in all before NES/Paco pleased with the result.
What put me off was a post saying he did not speak to players at half-time, told others not to and players did not like him. I hope this is just tosh or just not as bad as I assume this is.
I think the duo NES/Paco though could be very good, that I like. Championship is very competitive and he knows this, so it will be very interesting to see how the team is setup & its style of play, because right now this is what they can decide – I hope they take what is out there and come up with their own style of play that everyone will cheer.
With so much to do, knowledge of players in the squad needed upfront to decide who must stay and who can go, a quick turnaround required, he is the best person, plus he has his own super agent in Mendes, which you never know might turn up something.
He has earned his chance and that counts for a lot.
PS: Craig Bellamy available 2028 at end of Wales contract.
In my opinion Gonzo, your reservations on Nuno were absolutely justified and time will prove that. Today’s consistency will be tomorrow’s problem and as I said the other day, I doubt Nuno will still be in charge come Christmas ’27. As usual, the powers that be at West Ham are doing everything backwards and making decisions they will eventually regret and change. Let’s watch and see how it plays out.
Totally agree with everything you said Gonzo.
Nuno made some very strange decisions and left me wondering if he was the right man to stay in charge.
Can you imagine if we had to try and appoint a new manager on top of the multitude of other areas that require fire fighting at present?
There are so many issues that won’t be resolved anytime soon. Could be a bumpy ride for a couple of years before we come out the other side it.