West Ham United have been internally discussing a move for Lille boss Paulo Fonseca should they decide to move on from David Moyes.
That’s according to the Daily Mail, who claim that Moyes is clinging onto his job because there aren’t many quality alternatives out there.
West Ham know that Thomas Tuchel and Mauricio Pochettino are unlikely to be taking the job and other candidates aren’t wholly convincing.
It’s stated that ‘certain figures’ at West Ham are championing the likes of Rafael Benitez, Marcelo Bielsa and Lille boss Fonseca.
None of them are seen as absolute home run hits for West Ham though and Moyes will seemingly hang onto his job for a little while yet.
West Ham have been linked with Fonseca before
Fonseca allegedly interviewed for the West Ham job in 2018 as Moyes left and was eventually replaced by Manuel Pellegrini.
Fonseca ended up signing a new contract with Shakhtar Donetsk after a 75-minute meeting between himself, David Sullivan and agent Jorge Mendes.
The talks were described as ‘positive’ at the time, but later reports from Football London suggested that West Ham turned him down.
Fonseca allegedly had a ‘poor grasp of English’ and West Ham decided to appoint Pellegrini instead.
Fonseca went onto manage Roma and now Lille, though links with a move to the Premier League have been popular in recent times.
Tottenham came close to appointing Fonseca in 2021 and the Portuguese coach even claims that a deal was done before Fabio Paratici changed his mind.
Fonseca then thought he was getting the Newcastle United job as Steve Bruce’s replacement according to Guillem Balague, but that role went to Eddie Howe.
It feels like Fonseca will never make it to the Premier League but West Ham could consider him again nearly five years on.
Fonseca has been faring well with Lille, who currently sit sixth in the Ligue 1 table, just three points off a European place.
If Fonseca’s English has improved, maybe the move will finally materialise – but for now, Moyes is the man for West Ham.
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