Scott Parker returns to West Ham as head coach on two-and-a-half-year deal to lead promotion push
Former West Ham captain Scott Parker has returned to the club as head coach on a two-and-a-half-year contract, succeeding the sacked Nuno Espirito Santo and taking charge for the first time in Wednesday night’s Championship trip to Cardiff.
West Ham United have appointed Scott Parker as their new men’s first-team head coach, bringing a former captain back to the club 15 years after he left as a player to lead their bid for an immediate return to the Premier League.
The 46-year-old former England midfielder has signed a two-and-a-half-year contract at London Stadium and will take charge of the team for the first time on Wednesday evening, when West Ham travel to Cardiff City in the Championship.
Parker succeeds Nuno Espirito Santo, who was sacked on Tuesday after just over 13 months in charge. The Portuguese coach joined a struggling West Ham in September 2025 but was unable to reverse the club’s fortunes, overseeing their relegation from the Premier League for the first time since 2011, and back-to-back defeats left the side eighth in the second tier.
Announcing the appointment, the club said Parker would be assisted by first-team coaches Steve Potts, Gerard Prenderville and Billy Lepine, while former team-mate Mark Noble will also work closely with him. Further details of the permanent structure of Parker’s backroom staff will be announced in due course.
Parker said he felt privileged to be back. “It is a very proud moment for me to step into this role and return to a club that means so much to me and my family,” he said. “I feel privileged and honoured to be the guy that wants to lead us back to the Premier League and be the head coach of this football club at this moment in time.”
The appointment is a homecoming in every sense. Parker made 129 appearances for West Ham between 2007 and 2011 and was a hugely popular figure at Upton Park, winning the club’s player of the year award three times and captaining the side before his departure to Tottenham Hotspur in August 2011.
His managerial record is the reason West Ham have turned to him. Parker has guided three different clubs out of the Championship, winning promotion with Fulham in 2020, Bournemouth in 2022 and Burnley in 2025, a track record no other available coach could match.
Most recently he managed Burnley, leaving by mutual consent in April, days after the club’s relegation back to the Championship. That short, difficult spell at Turf Moor is the one blot on an otherwise strong record of building promotion-winning sides.
The immediate task is clear. West Ham sit eighth in the Championship, six points behind leaders Middlesbrough, and Parker’s first match, away at Cardiff on Wednesday night, comes with little time for a bedding-in period. The club had been preparing for the fixture under Noble after Nuno’s dismissal, but Parker will now be in the dugout himself.
Parker is West Ham’s fourth permanent manager since David Moyes left in May 2024, a turnover that underlines how unsettled the club has been in recent seasons. The hope among supporters will be that a familiar face with a proven promotion pedigree can finally bring stability.
What happens next will be judged quickly. The Championship is unforgiving, and a promotion push needs momentum before Christmas, but Parker’s history suggests he knows how to build it. If he can repeat what he achieved at Fulham, Bournemouth and Burnley, West Ham’s stay in the second tier could yet prove to be a short one.
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