Nuno Espírito Santo appointed new Head Coach

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Nuno Espírito Santo as our new Head Coach on a contract until 2023.

Nuno arrives following a four-year spell at Wolverhampton Wanderers, where he guided the club from the Championship into the Premier League and secured consecutive seventh place finishes in their first two seasons back in the top flight – their highest league position since 1980. He also restored the Molineux outfit to European competition, leading them to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League in 2019/20.

In tandem with Wolves' progress on the pitch, Nuno developed individual players such as Conor Coady, Diogo Jota, Ruben Neves, Willy Boly and our own Matt Doherty from the second tier into established Premier League and European talent, while also furthering the development of players such as Raul Jimenez, Pedro Neto and Adama Traore.

Earlier in his coaching career, Nuno guided Portuguese side Rio Ave to two cup finals and qualification for the UEFA Europa League for the first time in their history before taking over at Valencia in 2014, where he steered the Spanish outfit to Champions League football with a fourth place finish in La Liga. A former goalkeeper in his playing days, he subsequently spent one season in charge of one of his former clubs, Porto, where the team finished second and lost only two league games all season under his stewardship.

Chairman Daniel Levy: “First of all, I’d like to welcome Nuno to the Club. We should like to thank our supporters for all their patience throughout this process. I’ve spoken already about the need to revert back to our core DNA of playing attacking, entertaining football and Fabio and I believe Nuno is the man who can take our talented group of players, embrace our young players coming through and build something special.”

Commenting on the appointment, Managing Director - Football, Fabio Paratici said: “The brief for this appointment has always been clear, we wanted a Head Coach that can instil all the values that are important to this Football Club. You only have to look at Nuno’s time at Wolves to see his ability to take a group of players and implement an adaptive style that brings success and allows players to develop and thrive. We are all looking forward to getting started in what we hope will be a successful time with the Club.”

Speaking on his appointment, Nuno said: “When you have a squad with quality and talent, we want to make the fans proud and enjoy. It’s an enormous pleasure and honour (to be here), there’s joy and I’m happy and looking forward to starting work. We don’t have any days to lose and we must start working immediately as pre-season starts in a few days.”