West Ham are set to appoint former Nottingham Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo as their new head coach after sacking Graham Potter.
Nuno is expected to be in place before Monday’s Premier League match against Everton, having said he has had positive talks with the West Ham board.
Potter was dismissed on Saturday morning after just eight months in charge, with the club 19th place in the table.
The Hammers took only three points from their opening five Premier League games this season under the Englishman.
The east London club said they believed “a change is necessary in order to help improve the team’s position in the Premier League as soon as possible”.
They added: “Results and performances over the course of the second half of last season and the start of the 2025-26 season have not matched expectations.”
Potter, 50, had been preparing for Monday’s game and fulfilled his media duties on Friday, saying he believed he had the board’s backing after “positive talks”.
After last Saturday’s home defeat by Crystal Palace, BBC Sport reported the club were considering managerial alternatives, and discussions with Nuno have accelerated over the past 72 hours.
Nuno, 51, was sacked after 21 months in charge at Forest – and just three games into this season.
Last term the Portuguese guided the club to seventh in the Premier League – their highest finish since 1994-95 – as they qualified for Europe for the first time in three decades.
Potter took charge of 25 matches after being appointed in January – winning just six times – and the Hammers finished last season in 14th place in the league.
“The board would like to thank Graham and his coaching staff for their hard work during their time with the Hammers and wish them every success for the future,” the club added.
“The process of appointing a replacement is under way. The club will be making no further comment at this time.”
What went wrong for Potter?
Saturday’s 2-1 defeat by Palace was West Ham’s fifth in six league and cup games this season.
Potter replaced Spaniard Julen Lopetegui, who was sacked in January after six months in charge, with the Hammers 14th in the table.
“It’s a proud day to be head coach of this amazing club – big tradition, big history, big expectations, big challenge,” Potter said when he was appointed on 9 January.
But the former Chelsea and Brighton boss found wins difficult to come by.
West Ham, who sold Ghana forward Mohammed Kudus to Tottenham for £55m in July, spent £126m on eight new arrivals in the summer, including the £38m purchase of Portuguese midfielder Mateus Fernandes from Southampton in August.
But losses to Sunderland, Chelsea, Tottenham and Palace have left the club in the bottom three. They also went out of the Carabao Cup in the second round with a 3-2 defeat by fellow strugglers Wolves.
That led to West Ham issuing a statement acknowledging “results and performances on the pitch over the past two seasons have not met the standards we set for ourselves”.
Disgruntled fans staged a demonstration against the club’s board before the Palace match, and the owners have reacted by dismissing Potter.
Poor results on the pitch led to Potter becoming a viral trend on social media, with people using AI technology to swap his face on to other celebrities, including Barbie, US President Donald Trump and the Chuckle Brothers.
Speaking on Friday, Potter said he had not been taking it too seriously.
“It made my 15-year-old son laugh a lot so you have to accept what comes with it [the job],” he said.
“At times [that is] ridicule but that is just the environment we are in and it is what it is.”
How did Nuno’s spell at Forest finish?
Despite Forest’s success on the pitch during Nuno’s time as manager, his relationship with owner Evangelos Marinakis deteriorated in his final few months at the club.
In August, Nuno revealed he feared for his job, with internal tensions believed to centre around disagreements over their transfer business, which was conducted by new global head of football Edu.
Despite spending about £196m on 13 players, the former Wolves and Tottenham coach criticised the activity in the summer transfer window, saying Forest had wasted a good chance.
“I always had a very good relationship with the owner – last season we were very close and spoke on a daily basis,” he said. “This season it is not so well.”
His side also suffered poor form towards the end of 2024-25 – taking only eight points from their last eight matches to slide out of Champions League contention.
In May, Marinakis appeared to confront Nuno on the pitch following a 2-2 draw against already relegated Leicester, though Forest said there was “no confrontation” and it was “fake news” to suggest otherwise.
Forest started their season with a win over Brentford and a draw with Crystal Palace, before a 3-0 home defeat to the side he is now set to lead brought an end to his time in charge.
