Manchester United are interested in signing Juventus' Serbia striker Dusan Vlahovic, 25, in the January transfer window. (Gazetta - in Italian), external
Manchester City's Portugal midfielder Bernardo Silva, 31, is considering a move to Saudi Arabia when his contract expires next summer. (Talksport), external
Portugal midfielder Joao Neves, 21, is a top target for Manchester City, but Paris St-Germain are expected to reject an approach. (Football Insider), external
Liverpool are likely to be priced out of a move for Atletico Madrid's 25-year-old Argentina forward Julian Alvarez, with the La Liga side wanting about £100m. (Football Insider), external
Real Madrid are keeping tabs on two Chelsea midfielders - 24-year-old Argentina international Enzo Fernandez and 23-year-old Ecuador international Moises Caicedo. (TBR Football), external
Former England manager Gareth Southgate is on a three-man shortlist to replace Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim if he is sacked. (Talksport), external
AC Milan have opened talks with England defender Fikayo Tomori, 27, over a new contract, amid interest from Premier League clubs. (Fabrizio Romano) , external
Leeds United are monitoring 20-year-old Brazilian midfielder Gustavo Prado, with Internacional willing to entertain a fee of about £17m (SportWitness via Correio do Povo)
Sky Paper Talk
THE SUN
Oliver Glasner, Fabian Hurzeler and Andoni Iraola are among the coaches under consideration to replace Ruben Amorim if he is sacked by Manchester United.
Bruno Fernandes and Harry Kane are top of the Saudi Pro League's wish list as officials prepare for life after Cristiano Ronaldo.
Former England international Jonjo Shelvey has made a surprising move after signing with a third-tier side in the United Arab Emirates.
Wayne Rooney has been encouraged to face Cristiano Ronaldo in the boxing ring in a football super fight.
DAILY TELEGRAPH
Enzo Maresca retains the full faith of the Chelsea board, who plan to leave any assessment over his performance until the end of the season.
West Ham's Ines Belloumou was sent off for pulling the hair of Alyssa Thompson as they suffered a hammering by Women's Super League leaders Chelsea.
DAILY MAIL
Ruben Amorim still has the backing of Manchester United's minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe despite doubts over his future at Old Trafford.
A team-mate of ex-Arsenal academy star Billy Vigar, who died from fatal injuries sustained in a match last weekend, said he and his club have been left 'traumatised' by the horror accident.
Refs' body PGMOL have embarked upon what appears to be a charm offensive and are hosting roadshows with officials and fans of clubs across the Premier League.
DAILY STAR
Manchester United could offer Gareth Southgate a route back into management as pressure continues to build on Ruben Amorim.
THE ATHLETIC
Dani Carvajal is set to be out for up to five weeks after sustaining a calf injury during Real Madrid's 5-2 defeat by Atletico Madrid on Saturday. The timeframe means Carvajal is a doubt to feature in El Clasico on October 26.
THE SCOTTISH SUN
Rangers hero Derek Ferguson reckons club chiefs have a 'duty of care' to Russell Martin amid fan anger towards the manager.
The Athletic
Inside Graham Potter’s eight months at West Ham: Intense pressure, clashes with key figures
By Roshane Thomas
It was during a team meeting on Saturday morning that West Ham United’s squad suspected something was different.
Training at the club’s main hub, Rush Green, was scheduled to start at 9.30am and head coach Graham Potter arrived early to prepare for Monday’s match away to Everton. But that session with his squad was disrupted by the 50-year-old wandering in and out of the room. It was not common for him to behave in this manner, which confused the players.
It turned out Potter, who only succeeded summer 2024 appointment Julen Lopetegui in January, had been told he too had been relieved of his duties. The former Brighton and Chelsea manager then informed the players and said his farewells, with many of the squad shocked at the timing of the decision. Club secretary Andrew Pincher tried to ease their concerns by reassuring them someone new would be overseeing training at 12.30pm.
The players were initially unaware that person would be Nuno Espirito Santo. Former West Ham manager Slaven Bilic held conversations with the board over a return, but Nuno was their preferred option. They first entertained the possibility of the Portuguese replacing Potter earlier this month, when he was sacked as Nottingham Forest head coach.
West Ham officially announced Potter’s dismissal at 10.35am and confirmed Nuno, who has signed a three-year contract, as his successor four hours later. The 51-year-old will be assisted initially by academy coaches Mark Robson, Steve Potts, Gerard Prenderville and Billy Lepine, with a further announcement on his coaching staff expected in due course.
“I am very pleased to be here and very proud to be representing West Ham United,” Nuno told the club’s website. “The work has already started and I am looking forward to the challenge that is ahead.”
Potter won only six of his 25 games during his eight months at West Ham, including two (against Fulham on January 14 and Leicester City on February 27) of his 12 home matches. Supporters turned on him during the 2-1 defeat by visitors Crystal Palace last Saturday with chants of, “You don’t know what you’re doing”, and, “You’re getting sacked in the morning”. But, despite being under pressure, he did not expect his week to end like this.
He oversaw training on Monday, gave the squad Thursday off with the Everton match not until Monday and conducted his usual media duties on Friday. At that pre-match press conference, Potter spoke about his appreciation of the board, the need to fix West Ham’s problems together and the rather peculiar viral face-swap trend that involves him.
But as he acknowledged in a statement released after his departure, “the results have just not been good enough up to now”, and he leaves with West Ham 19th in the 20-team Premier League.
The Athletic has talked to people at the club close to the hierarchy and to players, and people close to the outgoing head coach. Everyone spoke under the condition of anonymity, to protect relationships.
We can reveal for the first time what went wrong for Potter at West Ham, including how:
He was under intense pressure as early as May
He clashed with players Edson Alvarez and Jean-Clair Todibo
His concerns over captain Jarrod Bowen’s ability to lead the team
The summer departures of Michail Antonio, Aaron Cresswell and Vladimir Coufal proved detrimental to team spirit.
Before Potter signed a two-and-a-half-year contract to manage West Ham in January, a picture leaked online of him meeting their then technical director Tim Steidten in the foyer of a hotel. This annoyed Potter, who felt holding talks in such a public place was an amateurish move. But despite his frustration, he felt it was the right time to return to the touchline, 20 months after being sacked by Chelsea in April 2023.
“As soon as I spoke to this club, it felt right for me,” Potter said in his first West Ham press conference. “I spoke to the board and everyone connected with the club. This one felt like the right one. I’m really excited to be here with a passionate and brilliant fanbase. I think it’s a good fit.”
Potter learnt Spanish and sought advice from former England manager Roy Hodgson and current England rugby union head coach Steve Borthwick during his time away from the game. He was also heavily linked with the England job before Thomas Tuchel’s appointment late last year, so his arrival at the London Stadium was considered a coup.
But it was a relationship that was strained from the start, given protracted negotiations over the length of his contract. Majority shareholder David Sullivan was initially only willing to give Potter a deal until the end of last season, terms he was reluctant to accept. Karren Brady, the vice-chair, then led negotiations, and all parties agreed to Potter’s terms.
In his first week, he called a team meeting at the training ground and was happy with the players’ response about where improvement was needed. But he then got off to a rocky start on the pitch, losing 2-1 away to Aston Villa in the FA Cup in his first game in charge. Despite an encouraging performance that night, striker Niclas Fullkrug and winger Crysencio Summerville suffered hamstring injuries that would keep them out for three and seven months respectively. West Ham won only one of their next five games.
After the 1-0 home loss to Brentford on February 15, a team meeting was held. The players were aware that performance was not up to Potter’s standards. An honest discussion ensued, which yielded a positive display away to Arsenal a week later.
Bowen’s solitary goal secured the win on what will be remembered as just about the only day in the Potter era where it clicked. His 5-3-2 formation worked, and the team spirit was palpable after full time: Potter embraced his backroom staff, Alvarez mischievously celebrated in front of the Arsenal fans seated behind the dugouts and Todibo hopped on fellow defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s back. Bowen led the walk to the away enclosure, where supporters serenaded the squad with various chants.
Back in the dressing room, Potter told the players they had the next day off. It was not “Champagne football”, as he admitted in his post-match press conference, but it was a step in the right direction.
Hours later, Potter was pictured travelling on the London Underground. He had a funny exchange with an Arsenal supporter, who was not best pleased to see him. But for the coach, it felt like a match where he was rewarded for his efforts on the training ground.
A 2-0 home victory over Leicester a few days later meant West Ham had kept consecutive clean sheets for the first time since the November (when they drew 0-0 with Everton at home and won 2-0 away to Newcastle United under Lopetegui), and had their first back-to-back league wins since previous March, when David Moyes was still the manager.
The positive run, though, was not to last. By the May 11 visit to Manchester United, West Ham were winless in eight games.
Potter made three changes to the starting XI, with Coufal and midfielders Guido Rodriguez and James Ward-Prowse brought in to replace Emerson Palmieri, Lucas Paqueta and Fullkrug. Kyle Macaulay, the head of recruitment, emailed the team sheet to Sullivan, who was not pleased with the line-up. Potter was informed failing to win that day could cost him his job, but West Ham ended up leaving Old Trafford with a 2-0 victory, courtesy of goals from Bowen and Tomas Soucek.
Despite the team’s underwhelming performances, Potter remained confident he was the right man for the job. He thought his squad were responding well to feedback from him and his backroom staff.
In April, Potter spoke about the benefits of sharing “home truths” with the players. “You have to look people in the eye and speak honestly,” he said at a press conference. “They help clear the air and give people a chance to voice their frustrations. That’s something we do all the time. It helps us understand and look under the bonnet to see things clearer.”
One of Potter’s first acts at West Ham was to increase the intensity in training sessions and then give players time off. Under Lopetegui, some of the squad found it hard to understand what the Spaniard was trying to achieve, with the team often playing a possession-based game in training that had the goalkeepers sometimes mixing in with their outfield colleagues.
But Potter was very much hands-on, although he delegated most of the work to assistants Billy Reid, Bruno Saltor, Narcis Pelach and Prenderville, who was promoted from the club’s under-21s setup earlier this month.
Reid, Saltor and goalkeeper coaches Casper Ankergren and Linus Kandolin have all left the club with Potter.
Many of the players enjoyed how meticulous the head coach was when going over details pre-and post-match but, as poor results continued, some felt this information went in one ear and out the other.
Potter inherited a tempestuous group when he followed the shortest-lived managerial appointment in the club’s 130-year history, with Lopetegui sacked after just 22 games. The new boss did not want history to repeat itself, although there were further dressing-room incidents.
He also had concerns about the lack of leaders in the team, and appointed James Bell as a sports psychologist to help his squad better manage stressful situations. A common theme this season has been how quiet the dressing-room was after matches. Even following heavy losses to London rivals Chelsea and Tottenham, none of the senior players were vocal. Instead, it was Potter who did most of the talking.
There were also questions over Bowen’s inability to lead the team. Although he is considered the club’s best player, he is not perhaps naturally suited to the captaincy and had a heated exchange with a West Ham supporter following last month’s Carabao Cup loss at Wolves.
In April, Potter took issue with Fullkrug launching a diatribe against his team-mates after a 1-1 draw at home to already-relegated Southampton. The 32-year-old Germany international told Sky Sports of his “anger” at the display, saying “we didn’t have the ability or the motivation to push up”, and adding: “The motivation… sorry, we were s**t. I’m very angry.”
Although Fullkrug didn’t get fined over the episode, Potter was not pleased with the comments, which further cemented his view of a player who is one of West Ham’s highest earners.
To compound matters, Potter had a disagreement with Alvarez that same month and felt a summer departure for the midfielder would be best for all parties. In August, Mexico captain Alvarez joined Turkish club Fenerbahce on loan in a deal including an option to make the move permanent at the end of the season.
Todibo is another who did not have the greatest relationship with Potter. Having initially joined on loan from Nice in the summer of 2024, West Ham activated a £32.8million ($43.9m at the current rate) obligation to buy in June. Todibo, who has two caps for France, rejected a move to Juventus in favour of West Ham. Countryman Alphonse Areola also advised the defender to turn down the Italian side and join him at the London Stadium.
But Todibo frustrated Potter with his inconsistent performances and was dropped for the 3-0 defeat by Tottenham two weeks ago over bad timekeeping. He did not produce a performance in training that was up to Potter’s standards on September 11 and was called to the head coach’s office and told to improve. But then he arrived late the following day.
Full-back Emerson lost his place in the latter stages of last season. The 31-year-old wanted to stay to fight for a recall, but Potter had other ideas. The left-back was not properly fit when he reported for pre-season and arrived late for training on a few occasions. Potter told the Italy international to train with the under-21s, and he was omitted from West Ham’s pre-season tour to the United States so he could find a new club. Eventually, on deadline day at the start of this month, Emerson joined Marseille for a small fee, becoming West Ham’s tenth departure in a summer that began with Mohammed Kudus being sold to Spurs for £55million.
Antonio, the club’s record Premier League goalscorer, Cresswell and Coufal all departed in May upon the expiry of their contracts. The trio were popular members of the dressing room. Antonio, for example, was in charge of the squad’s fines system, would keep his fellow players in check and organised team-bonding sessions. Nobody has really replaced him as that figure.
There is some sympathy for Potter among the players that this situation is not all his fault. He tried his best to unite the squad, but his decisions to get rid of some big characters counted against him.
El Hadji Malick Diouf (Slavia Prague), Soungoutou Magassa (Monaco), Mateus Fernandes (Southampton) and Mads Hermansen (Leicester) came in over the summer, with Igor Julio joining on a season-long loan from Brighton, and Kyle Walker-Peters and Callum Wilson signing as free agents. West Ham spent around £125million altogether and, in pre-season, there was excitement from within over what they could achieve in their 2025-26 campaign. The atmosphere at the training ground, according to staff who work there, felt more together, more holistic.
But the feel-good factor evaporated following a chastening 3-0 opening-weekend loss away to promoted Sunderland. Further defeats by Chelsea, Wolves, Tottenham and Crystal Palace added to Potter’s woes.
Tara Warren, West Ham’s executive director, never usually attends their managers’ press conferences but was present when Potter addressed the media last Thursday, September 18, before the Palace game, and he faced reporters on Friday, the day before his dismissal, too.
In a statement released by the League Managers Association later on Saturday, Potter said he was “incredibly disappointed” to be leaving West Ham, “particularly without being able to achieve what we set out to achieve at the start of our journey in east London”.
Over to you, Nuno!
The Athletic
Why Nuno Espirito Santo’s focus on defensive solidity and quick counter-attacks could suit West Ham
By Roshane Thomas
Editor’s note: This is an updated version of an article that first appeared on The Athletic on September 26
West Ham United confirmed the arrival of Nuno Espirito Santo as their new head coach on Saturday, just hours after the departure of predecessor Graham Potter.
A difficult start to the season under Potter has left the east London side second-bottom of the Premier League table after five games. He struggled to implement his preferred brand of football with the players available to him, moving between several formations during his eight months in charge.
Nuno, though, is something of a tactical chameleon. As Wolverhampton Wanderers’ head coach between 2017 and 2021, he had success with the 3-5-2 formation. More recently at Nottingham Forest, he used a 4-2-3-1, leading them into Europe, too. The Portuguese is also known for getting the best out of the players available to him: striker Chris Wood scored 20 Premier League goals for Forest, his 12th club across the top three divisions of English football since 2008, last season — Nuno’s sole full campaign in charge at the City Ground.
But will the 51-year-old work as West Ham coach? And whose careers might he elevate to new heights? The Athletic’s Roshane Thomas has had a look.
Nuno was surprisingly sacked earlier this month, despite leading Forest to European qualification last season. Forest’s seventh-placed finish in the top flight was their highest in 30 years. They also reached the FA Cup semi-finals, where they lost to Manchester City. It’s a level of achievement that explains why Nuno’s managerial stock remains high despite that sudden exit from his previous job.
Offensively, Forest were good at hurting teams on the counter with their pace. They registered more total fast breaks (47) than West Ham (31) last season in their 38 league matches. Defensively, they were organised and disciplined, conceding 46 goals, 16 fewer than West Ham. Nuno’s men also kept 13 clean sheets, only champions Liverpool (14) had more.
Nuno worked with West Ham centre-back Maximilian Kilman at Wolves for three seasons, and the 28-year-old could benefit most from his appointment of their current group of players. Kilman is struggling to overcome a loss of form and has been a weak link on defensive corners — he was outmuscled by Crystal Palace counterpart Marc Guehi before striker Jean-Philippe Mateta scored a header in the 2-1 win at the London Stadium last weekend that turned out to be Potter’s final match in charge.
West Ham and Kilman have struggled from corners this season (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
“I was a big, strong boy, but I had so much to work on,” Kilman told the Birmingham Mail in 2020 while explaining the impact Nuno had on his young career. “(He improved) my game, understanding and my physicality. When I came in (from non-League football), I had never played five at the back, so I’ve had to adapt and understand my role as a defender. I’ve had to become stronger and sharper, and that’s what I lacked when I first came into Wolves.”
Forest’s central defensive duo Nikola Milenkovic, who had been a West Ham transfer target in 2021 when at Italian club Fiorentina, and Murillo formed a solid partnership under Nuno. The options at that position he’s inheriting from Potter are Kilman, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Igor Julio and Jean-Clair Todibo. West Ham have conceded seven goals from corners this season, the most in the Premier League, so will hope to tap into Nuno’s track record for improving defenders.
The Portuguese gave Forest, who successfully fought off relegation under predecessor Steve Cooper in their 2022-23 post-promotion season but were facing another battle with the drop when they sacked the Welshman in December 2023, an identity which allowed them to compete with the bigger clubs. Last season, they did the double over both Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, took four points off title-bound Liverpool, including a win at Anfield, beat City and earned draws with Chelsea and Arsenal.
Nuno’s ability to also improve the efficiency of his attacking players was incredibly impressive.
Below is a list of players who had scored and registered the most assists from fast breaks in the league between Nuno replacing Cooper and Potter’s sacking on Saturday morning. Anthony Elanga, who moved to Newcastle United for £52million ($69.6m at the current rate) in July, and his former Forest team-mate Morgan Gibbs-White rank high, while West Ham captain Jarrod Bowen is not too far behind.
Bowen and Summerville will likely be key attacking options for Nuno’s West Ham. It is worth remembering the latter was a transfer target for him at Forest: when Elanga joined Newcastle, the former Leeds winger was viewed as an ideal replacement but stayed loyal to West Ham.
The graphic below shows that Nuno’s Forest did not prioritise possession or deep build-up play last season. They defended deep and relied on the solidity and strength of their defensive shape to absorb pressure and hit teams on the break.
Do not expect West Ham to prioritise having the ball under their new head coach, but clearly, his managerial nous could benefit them and the players they have at their disposal.
If Nuno can solidify the West Ham defence, stop them from conceding so frequently at set pieces and also get their pacy wide players firing more regularly, he could arrest this difficult start to the season.
His mission to pull West Ham out of danger begins tonight (Monday) away to Everton.
(Top photo: Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images)