Nuno Espirito Santo to STAY as West Ham boss

West Ham’s relegation to the Championship was confirmed on Sunday with a 3-0 win over Leeds, yet the club has decided to keep Nuno Espirito Santo as head coach. The board says he has committed to the club after meetings early this week, while David Sullivan’s

Nuno Espirito Santo was already facing the sharpest of questions after Sunday’s relegation felt final — West Ham won 3-0 over Leeds. but still dropped into the Championship when Tottenham beat Everton 1-0. It ended a 14-year stay in the Premier League. and West Ham’s final tally of 39 points became the highest by a relegated side in 15 years.

By the time the dust settled, the most striking development wasn’t the result from Elland Road or the trigger goal in Tottenham’s match. It was what West Ham chose to do next.

The club will keep Nuno in place despite the inability to prevent relegation. West Ham’s board confirmed it held meetings with the head coach early this week. announcing: “We held meetings with Head Coach Nuno Espirito Santo early this week and are pleased to confirm that he has expressed his continued commitment to the Club – as we have to him.”.

The timing is an unexpected shift. In the lead-up to relegation, indications had pointed towards the board being ready to part ways with the Portuguese manager, even though he signed a three-year deal to replace Graham Potter in September.

The decision is also notable because both West Ham and Nuno had the option to walk away for free following relegation. Instead, the board says it believes there have been “broader signs of improvement and progress in recent months”, and it wants Nuno to continue developing that direction.

Nuno’s immediate task is clear in the club’s own wording: guiding West Ham back to the top flight “at the first time of asking”. The board adds that the “unquestionable goal” is promotion next season.

The club pointed to a previous Championship success from Nuno’s career: one year in the EFL Championship, described as “an outstanding success” when he secured 99 points to win the title with Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2018.

As West Ham prepare for the second tier. the board’s statement also acknowledged the anger that has followed Sunday’s confirmation at the London Stadium. It said “steps will be taken” to repair the club’s relationship with its fanbase. with supporters having subjected the leadership to vehement criticism after the match against Leeds.

There is also a concrete response on season-ticket costs. West Ham confirmed a reduction of “up to 30 per cent” across all season tickets for next season. The club says it will arrange meetings with the Fan Advisory Board over the summer. aiming “to help us shape our immediate strategy for more off-field improvements”.

While the board tried to steady the atmosphere. Ampika Pickston — the 33-year-old girlfriend of majority owner David Sullivan — moved in the same emotional direction from outside the formal club statements. Pickston posted on Instagram before Sunday’s match and later reflected on what she called an emotional swing from smiles to tears.

In the caption, she wrote: “The day started off with smiles and ended in tears. Time to re-set, regroup and restructure. It’s easy to point the finger and blame this serves no merit. Lessons are learnt, you learn from experiences. Life shapes us all, only way for us is UP now.”

Pickston also emphasized the same theme in the wider message being shared around the club’s fallout: that finger-pointing “serves no merit”.

The Nuno decision comes after a season that has left measurable frustration behind. West Ham’s record under him is given by the article’s figures: 37 games, 11 wins, 11 draws, 15 losses — a win rate of 29.7 per cent.

Before West Ham. Nuno spent a little over a year with Al Ittihad in Saudi Arabia before returning to England with Nottingham Forest. With Forest, he kept them up in 2023-24, then guided them to seventh place and European qualification the following season. He was sacked in September 2025, less than three months after signing a new three-year deal.

Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville had urged West Ham to stick with Nuno and to protect captain Jarrod Bowen ahead of whatever rebuild comes next. Speaking on the Gary Neville podcast on Sunday, he said: “The manager and Bowen are the two most important figures. I think they need to lock that in quite quickly.”.

Neville added that he expected ownership to offer strong incentives to keep Nuno: “I’ll be amazed if West Ham’s ownership haven’t put a huge incentive forward to Nuno to stay. If they were smart, they would announce that in the next 48 hours.”

He also warned that the financial impact of relegation would make contract work harder, saying: “By the end of the week, you want to try and lock Jarrod Bowen in with a big contract to stay, which will be difficult because they are going to lose a lot of revenue this year.”

Neville linked those moves to stability in the dressing room and the fanbase: “That then stabilises the dressing room potentially and stabilises the fanbase somewhat from where they will be (on Sunday night) which is absolutely desperately disappointed.”

In that same broader view. he said West Ham likely planned for this scenario in the weeks leading up to Sunday. not only financially but also in terms of “resources and personnel”. He argued West Ham needed quick communication that land well with supporters: “It’s important they get some good PR messages out there quite quickly.”.

Between the board’s formal commitment to Nuno and Pickston’s plea to “re-set. regroup and restructure. ” West Ham now face a season where reconciliation will be as urgent as recruitment. A Premier League relegation may define the last day. but the next step — with Nuno staying. season tickets cut. and fan meetings scheduled — is what will decide whether Sunday’s heartbreak can turn into something they can build on.

West Ham Nuno Espirito Santo Premier League relegation Championship Leeds Tottenham Everton Jarrod Bowen David Sullivan Ampika Pickston Gary Neville