It is not often that the appointment of a new assistant coach creates such a buzz. But Paco Jemez, unveiled as part of Nuno Espirito Santo’s West Ham United staff on Thursday, is no ordinary assistant coach.
For a start, the 55-year-old former Spain international is highly experienced.
While Nuno Espirito Santo has taken charge of 548 senior matches at club level – from FC Porto to Valencia, Tottenham to Nottingham Forest and West Ham United – Paco Jemez has overseen 537 games during spells in Mexico, Azerbaijan and his Spanish homeland.
And in terms of pure style, it is difficult to think of two managers who contrast each other more.
Admired by Luis Enrique and loved by Pep Guardiola… 🇪🇸
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Nuno took Nottingham Forest into Europe last term with the third-lowest possession numbers and the fifth-highest number of counter-attacking goals. In contrast, Paco Jemez’s Rayo Vallecano outfit once sat inside Europe’s top five when it came to ranking the continent’s most possession-heavy teams.
That both Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique are huge fans speaks volumes to Jemez’s reputation among the great purists of the modern game.
La Liga cult hero Paco Jemez should bring plenty of ‘fun’ to West Ham United
Sid Lowe, The Guardian’s Spanish football expert, saw Jemez’s Rayo Vallecano side finish eighth in La Liga in 2013. He will remember the day when Jemez’s Rayo edged Barcelona in the possession stakes, the first team to do so in 316 matches.
He also will remember how Jemez’s reputation declined following Rayo’s relegation in 2016. He was most recently spotted leaving UD Ibiza after a poor start to the Segunda season.
But, more than anything, Lowe remembers the ‘fun’.
“Wow! Fantastic,” Lowe wrote on X shortly before Nuno Espirito Santo officially welcomed Paco Jemez to Rush Green. “This will be fun.”
Nuno Espirito Santo welcomes Jemez before Tottenham Hotspur derby
With these players out or doutbful, who needs to step up against Tottenham?!
Credit: Getty Images/James Gill – Danehouse
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There are, of course, concerns bubbling under the surface.
Will Paco Jemez and Nuno really see eye to eye, considering how contrasting their philosophies tend to be? How will a man who has spent the last 18 years as a head coach adapt to a backseat position as a number two?
And given that Jemez is famously ‘style over results’ – he once quipped after a 5-0 battering by Real Madrid that he would rather be trounced sticking to his principles than win while abandoning them – how will the West Ham faithful really take to him? Such soundbites are unlikely to go down well when the club’s Premier League status is hanging by a thread.
On the other hand, as Nuno explained during his press conference on Thursday, Jemez should bring a fresh perspective to the London Stadium.
The confidence he instilled in those Rayo icons between 2012 and 2016, particularly Roberto Trashorras, who topped the La Liga passing charts in successive campaigns, may bode very well for a talented crop of forwards and midfielders in claret and blue.
“It’s one more person to help us. The coaching staff [has] more numbers,” Nuno said while previewing Saturday’s London derby clash with Tottenham Hotspur.
“More numbers means more ideas, more energy. He is an experienced coach and he will bring new things to us. He will help us definitely.”
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