While Nuno Espirito Santo has his claws dug deep into the West Ham United job right now, there is one former Upton Park footballer who would relish the chance to take the place of the former Wolves, Nottingham Forest and Tottenham boss one day.
Before hiring Nuno on a three-year contract in late-September, the Hammers considered a wide range of alternative options.
Hammers News were told months ago that sporting director Mark Noble is a big Michael Carrick fan. Despite losing his job at Middlesbrough following an underwhelming 2024/25 campaign in which they failed to even reach the play-offs, it is not out of the question that the West Ham United academy graduate returns to his old stomping ground somewhere down the line.
Noble admires the work Scott Parker has done at Burnley, too, and Frank Lampard has been a revelation at Coventry City.
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With the Hammers staring relegation in the face and the Sky Blues eight points clear at the top of the Championship, there is a very real chance that both clubs could be trading divisions come May.
Lee Bowyer, though, was not one of the former West Ham midfielders under consideration for a return to East London. But speaking to the Daily Mail, the boyhood Hammers fanatic is not giving up on his dream of guiding his beloved claret and blues from the sidelines.
Lee Bowyer would love to be West Ham United’s manager
Bowyer, born in Canning Town, was a huge West Ham fan as a child.
Given that he represented the club as a player on two separate occasions – initially during the 2002/03 season and again from 2006 to 2009 – it is fair to say he lived the dream, even if neither of those spells really worked out in the way he’d have liked.
West Ham were relegated under the late Glenn Roeder in 2003. A series of injury issues limited his involvement and his impact, meanwhile, the second time around.
Bowyer the manager, though, has not given up hope of picking up where Bowyer the player left off.
“I’d like to manage West Ham one day,” the now-48-year-old former England international says. “I think I’d do it right. For one, it’s my club.”
While Nuno has spoken about improving the connection between the players and West Ham’s disillusioned fanbase, Bowyer knows more than most the importance of everybody pulling together in the same direction, from the field to the terraces and beyond.
In his first ever managerial role, Bowyer was parachuted into a Charlton outfit stuck in the throes of the disastrous Roland Duchatelet ownership. He would guide the Addicks back to the Championship via the League One play-offs.
“People talk a lot about lost connections. Charlton was the same when I took over [in 2018],” adds the ex-Leeds, Newcastle and Birmingham City enforcer. “With only maybe 9,000 [fans] coming to games, it seemed like it had been pulled apart a bit, because of the owners.
“We got the crowds up and they liked the football we were playing and by the end of the season we had a full house more than 25,000 for the play-off semi-final and sold out 40-odd thousand for the final at Wembley!”
Bowyer took over Monserrat after difficult spell at Birmingham City
Bowyer’s managerial career started extremely promisingly, though success has been much harder to come by since then.
A return to Birmingham was short-lived, ended by a miserable 20th-place finish in the second-tier. Bowyer could be spotted most recently in charge of the Monserrat national team, where he won only four out of 14 games.
So even before his 50th birthday, Bowyer already appears to be in a battle to keep his managerial career alive. As a certain Alan Curbishley will tell you, it is very easy to fall out of favour. Out of sight, out of mind.
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Curbishley has not managed since leaving West Ham under an almighty black cloud in 2008, following the controversial sales of George McCartney and Anton Ferdinand to Sunderland.
“I was being offered clubs, clubs in the Premier League that were in the bottom three, which I didn’t want to go into again. I didn’t want to go in somewhere and get relegated after 15 games or whatever,” Curbishley told The Managers Podcast this month.
“I left it a year because of the court case [The League Managers’ Association eventually decided that Curbishley was entitled to resign because the sales of Ferdinand and McCartney constituted a breach of his contract, per The Guardian].
“Then, it’s 18 months. Then, a little bit longer. New sporting directors, new owners, and you’re out of the loop.
“I found a different life. I never saw my kids grow up! You’re out Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday watching games. Maybe at the weekend you’re going into Europe to watch a game. Then, you find a different lifestyle.
“[But] that is my regret; I should have given it one more go.”
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