Nuno Espirito Santo knows he needs to hit the ground running when he takes charge of West Ham for the first time at Everton on Monday night.
The 51-year-old was confirmed as the Hammers’ new head coach on Saturday, just four hours after Graham Potter was sacked, and took training later that afternoon.
Nuno, who was axed by Nottingham Forest less than three weeks ago, inherits a side lying 19th in the Premier League having lost four of their five matches and been knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Wolves.
“I’m trying to, as soon as possible, know all the players,” he told West Ham TV.
“I think I know them better than they know me, because it’s like that. We are coaches and we try to take all the info that we can about the players.
“Many of them, we faced each other before and now it’s preparing for the game, a tough game against Everton.”
Nuno is West Ham’s fourth manager in just 16 months after David Moyes – now impressing back at Everton – Julen Lopetegui and Potter.
The Portuguese coach enjoyed a successful spell at Forest, guiding the club into Europe for the first time in nearly 30 years before a fall-out with owner Evangelos Marinakis.
His final match in charge was the only game West Ham have won all season, 3-0 at the City Ground on August 31.
That result was supposed to herald Potter’s team finally beginning to click, but it was in fact an outlier in what has otherwise been a dreadful start.
Nuno is also walking into a club without a win at their London Stadium ground since February and with a fanbase growing increasingly mutinous towards owner David Sullivan.
“Now it’s a new beginning for everybody,” added Nuno. “It’s a new process that we really have to know, and we find out who we are and what we want to be.
“First of all, we have to realise who we are, and then we can create an identity. But first of all, we have to know each other really, really well.
“The supporters are very important, very important. That’s why I truly believe what we want to achieve is a platform.
“Now is not the moment to ask the fans. Now is the moment to deliver to the fans.
“When we have this bond, when other teams come to play against us, it’s going to be hell. But we have to achieve this bond first.”
Sullivan’s handling of Potter’s sacking, a day after he conducted his usual pre-match press conference ahead of the trip to Everton, has attracted criticism.
Former Hammers striker Tony Cottee wrote on X: “As usual, the fiasco at West Ham is handled with a total lack of class.
“The players will be delighted to have their fourth manager in 16 months. What a shambles.
“As I’ve said before though, nothing will ever change until this dreadful ownership has left the club.”
