From Slaven Bilic to Edin Terzic, Nuno Espirito Santo to Scott Parker; West Ham United at least have plenty of options should they dispense with Graham Potter following a miserable Premier League start.
Though David Sullivan reportedly prefers the Slaven Bilic option – a man who ‘knows the club’, as they say, and has guided the Hammers to success in the past – Nuno Espirito Santo’s stock could hardly be higher.
A Champions League finalist as recently as 2024, former Borussia Dortmund boss Edin Terzic is keen on a return to management himself.
In addition to Bilic, meanwhile, other former Hammers including Frank Lampard, Michael Carrick, Gary O’Neil and Scott Parker have filled plenty of column inches on the back of that 2-1 home defeat by Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Now, Hammers News can shed some light on the situation, via chief football correspondent Graeme Bailey.
Mark Noble, West Ham United’s sporting director, has his own ideas. David Sullivan too, while it can be confirmed that the success former captain Parker has enjoyed at Burnley has not gone unnoticed either at the London Stadium.
Photo by James Gill – Danehouse/Getty ImagesWest Ham United director Mark Noble is a big fan of Frank Lampard and Michael Carrick
Prominent Hammers insider Sean Whetstone reported, after Palace left-back Tyrick Mitchell consigned Potter to a third successive home London derby defeat, that the embattled head coach is likely to remain in charge until after the trip to Arsenal on October 4th.
The looming international break, however, may give the club’s hierarchy an opportunity to get a new man in the building while giving him a useful settling-in period.
Bailey, speaking exclusively to Hammers News on Wednesday, insists that Scott Parker is a name to keep an eye on. Noble is also understood to be highlighting the benefits of a young, ambitious head coach with a prior knowledge of life in East London.
“West Ham are exploring options from Slaven Bilic and Nuno, but others too,” Bailey explains.
“Plenty of names are being put to the club’s hierarchy and Scott Parker is one of those. He is a player with history at West Ham and they do respect the work he has done in recent years as a manager. He can’t be totally discounted.
“But there are others.
“I understand Mark Noble likes Parker, but has also pushed the cases of the likes of Frank Lampard and Michael Carrick.”
Raphael Wicky and Edin Terzic are more left-field options
Bailey told Hammers News in June that legendary former skipper-turned-sporting director Noble was ‘impressed’ by the job Carrick did at Middlesbrough.
The 2008 Champions League winner took Boro from the Championship relegation zone to the play-off semi-finals in the space of a few months in 2022/23. However, his stock plummeted during a difficult final campaign at the Riverside; Sacked after a tenth-place finish with the current second-tier leaders.
Frank Lampard took both Derby and Coventry into the play-offs, meanwhile.
That stellar start to life with the Sky Blues has helped Lampard bounce back from difficult spells at Everton and Chelsea. Hammers News have also been informed by an agent source that Lampard may be tempted to leave Coventry should West Ham approach their one-time academy graduate.
We have been told that vice-chair Karren Brady held talks with Nuno Espirito Santo just last week, too.
More left-field options include the aforementioned Edin Terzic – although he did work as an assistant to Slaven Bilic between 2015 and 2017 – and Raphael Wicky.
Capped 75 times by Switzerland in his playing days, Wicky guided BSC Young Boys to a league and cup double in 2023. The former Basel, Chicago Fire and USA Under-17 coach is currently without a club, and West Ham have been made aware of his availability.
“The likes of Raphael Wicky and Edin Terzic are being put forward by others,” Bailey explains. “David Sullivan is certainly not shy of options.”