West Ham United head coach Nuno Espirito Santo has hired lawyers to pursue a legal claim against Nottingham Forest over his sacking at the start of the season.
Nuno’s departure from the City Ground last September was one of the most turbulent managerial exits English football has seen in years.
The Portuguese had just guided Forest to the Europa League in a campaign widely regarded as one of the finest achievements in the club’s modern history, only to sign a new three-year contract in June and then spend most of pre-season at war with the people above him.
The arrival of former Arsenal technical director Edu Gaspar as Marinakis’s global head of football was the flashpoint. Nuno felt his authority over transfers had been stripped away, said so publicly and repeatedly, and was gone within 75 days of putting pen to paper on that new deal.
The precise terms of his legal claim against Forest have not been disclosed, and it is unclear whether the dispute centres on the financial terms of his exit or something else entirely.
The Athletic reports that sources close to both sides said there is no goodwill left between the parties, and the matter is being handled by lawyers on both ends.
The timing is not lost on anyone. West Ham and Forest are level on points in the bottom half of the table, separated only by goal difference, with both sides in serious danger of dropping into the Championship.
Nuno is quite literally trying to save West Ham’s season at Forest’s expense, while simultaneously fighting them in a courtroom.
Forest have been through four permanent managers since his exit, going from Nuno to Ange Postecoglou to Sean Dyche to Vitor Pereira, and are now being run by a man they appointed in a state of near-panic.
West Ham, meanwhile, have shown signs of life under Nuno after a dreadful winter run. A 1-0 win at Fulham on Wednesday night lifted them out of the bottom three on goal difference and moved them to within a point of Forest, who drew 2-2 at Manchester City on the same night.
