Scott Parker is back at West Ham. The club named their former captain as head coach on Wednesday, one day after Nuno Espírito Santo was sacked, and gave him a contract for two and a half years.
Parker, 46, has no time to settle in. He will be in charge for Wednesday night’s Championship game away at Cardiff City.
A familiar face in east London
Parker joined West Ham as a player in 2007 and stayed until 2011. He played more than 100 games for the club and was named their player of the year three seasons in a row.
He also knows the man he will work with every day. His old team-mate Mark Noble is the club’s sporting director and will work closely with Parker. Steve Potts and Gerard Prenderville will help him on the training ground as first-team coaches, along with Billy Lepine.
“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,” Parker said in a statement released by the club.
Interim chief executive Karim Virani praised Parker’s record as a coach in the Championship and said he was the board’s choice.
Three promotions from this league
That record is the main reason West Ham picked him. Parker has won promotion from the Championship three times. He went up with Fulham in 2020 and with Bournemouth in 2022, and he did it again with Burnley in 2025. He also had a short spell at Club Brugge in Belgium.
His last job ended in April, when he left Burnley after they were relegated from the Premier League.
Why Nuno had to go
West Ham dropped into the Championship last season, and the plan is to go straight back up. The start has not gone well. They lost their last two games, both at home, and sit eighth in the table.
Nuno took over in September 2025 and the club kept him after relegation, but those two defeats were the end for him.
Our take
This is a safe pick, and maybe the right one. Parker knows how to win this league, and fans still remember him as a player who gave everything in the shirt.
The hard part is the timing. He has had almost no time with the squad before going to Cardiff. If West Ham get a result there, the mood around the club could change very quickly.
Can Scott Parker take West Ham back to the Premier League at the first try? Tell us in the comments.
Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Scott Parker by Timmy96 (CC0); Scott Parker by Egghead06 (CC BY-SA 3.0); Mark Noble by Wonker Wonker (CC BY-SA 2.0); London Stadium by Arne Müseler (CC BY-SA 3.0 DE).
