West Ham United have sacked head coach Nuno Espirito Santo following what the club described, in the language of the boardroom, as "a thorough review of the start to the EFL Championship season." Assistant head coach Rui Pedro Silva and goalkeeper coach Rui Barbosa have also left London Stadium.

BBC Sport understands that the club are in advanced talks with Scott Parker and are hoping to confirm the appointment before Wednesday's Championship trip to Cardiff City. Mark Noble, Steve Potts and Gerard Prenderville will take interim charge for that fixture while negotiations continue.

From top of the table to eighth in six weeks

The speed of the collapse is worth registering. West Ham were widely regarded as one of the pre-season favourites for automatic promotion, and for a brief moment in September they looked the part. Four successive wins in the first half of that month, including a 6-0 victory over Wrexham, put them top of the Championship table with 16 goals scored in the run. That momentum has since evaporated completely.

Just two league wins have followed since that purple patch: a 6-0 victory at nine-man Lincoln City and a 1-0 result at Swansea City. Draws against Millwall and QPR were acceptable enough; the back-to-back home defeats were not. A 3-2 loss to Southampton was followed on Saturday by a 3-1 defeat to West Bromwich Albion, and those results have cost Nuno his job. West Ham now sit eighth in the table, six points behind leaders Middlesbrough.

A fourth permanent manager in under two and a half years

Should Parker be confirmed, he will be West Ham's fourth permanent head coach since David Moyes left in May 2024, a fact that reflects poorly on the club's decision-making as much as on the men they have appointed. Julen Lopetegui lasted six months before being dismissed mid-table in the Premier League. Graham Potter replaced him, oversaw a 14th-placed finish, then was sacked eight months later with the side 19th in the table. Nuno was brought in despite being unable to arrest the decline, and the club were relegated at the end of last season, finishing two points behind Tottenham Hotspur.

Having posted losses of more than £104m, relegation forced a significant restructure of the playing squad over the summer. Sales of Mateus Fernandes, Crysencio Summerville, El Hadji Malick Diouf, James Ward-Prowse and Freddie Potts brought in approximately £150m in transfer revenue. The club reinvested a portion of that, paying Celtic a Championship record £22m for midfielder Arne Engels and a reported £12m for Norwegian winger Edvin Austbo. Joel Veltman and Manor Solomon also arrived on free transfers from Brighton and Tottenham respectively.

Those signings have yet to justify their outlay. Engels has three assists and no goals in 12 Championship appearances. Austbo has scored twice and contributed two assists, but has started only two league matches. Tomas Soucek missed the opening two months of the season with an ankle injury. The squad has quality, but it has not cohered, and that is the challenge any incoming manager inherits.

Why Parker makes sense on paper

Parker, 44, was out of work after Burnley were relegated from the Premier League in May. His record in the second tier is genuinely strong: he guided Bournemouth to the Championship title in 2022 and led Fulham to promotion via the play-offs in 2020. He also had four seasons as a player at West Ham, which the club will presumably have cited in their press-release language about "cultural fit."

The harder question is whether a squad assembled to win the Championship automatically can rediscover its form quickly enough to stay in contention. With a six-point gap to make up on Middlesbrough and the promotion places still within reach, West Ham can afford little further drift. Parker, if confirmed, will need to sort the home form above all else: London Stadium has now seen two defeats in a row, both conceding three goals, and that pattern will not reassure a fanbase that has already watched the club slide from the Premier League.

The club's board statement said the process of recruiting a new head coach "is already under way." On current evidence, it needed to be.

Frequently asked

Why was Nuno Espirito Santo sacked by West Ham?
West Ham's board cited a disappointing start to the Championship season. The club had slipped to eighth in the table after back-to-back home defeats to Southampton and West Brom, six points behind leaders Middlesbrough.
Who is taking charge of West Ham after Nuno?
Scott Parker is in advanced talks to become West Ham's new head coach, according to BBC Sport. In the meantime, Mark Noble, Steve Potts and Gerard Prenderville will take temporary charge for the trip to Cardiff City.
What is Scott Parker's Championship management record?
Parker guided Fulham to promotion via the play-offs in 2020 and led Bournemouth to the Championship title in 2022. He was most recently in charge of Burnley before losing his job when they were relegated from the Premier League in May.