Nuno Espirito Santo Targets Former Protegé Matz Sels Amid West Ham Rebuild

West Ham are investigating the possibility of swooping for Matz Sels if they retain their Premier League status and Nottingham Forest drop, SportsBoom can exclusively reveal. 

The Belgian was a mainstay of the team Nuno Espirito Santo steered into Europe last season, before being controversially axed by Evangelos Marinakis. 

Now in charge of Forest’s relegation rivals, that has prompted Nuno to begin piecing together a potential bid for a player who, given his international aspirations, is unlikely to contemplate playing at Championship level next term if Vitor Pereira’s men fail to survive.

Signed from Strasbourg two years ago, Sels is under contract at the City Ground until 2027 after extending his agreement soon after heading to England. 

But the length of that deal, which also contains an option for a further 12 months, will not dissuade The Hammers from testing Marinakis’ resolve should Forest return to the English Football League. 

From Sels’ perspective, the opportunity to once again work under a coach who showed more faith in his ability than any of his predecessors would make east London an attractive proposition. 

Likewise, his experience of Nuno’s body of work in the east Midlands, where he transformed a squad languishing in the lower reaches of the table into, at one stage, genuine title challengers before his disagreement with Marinakis and the Greek’s Global Head of Football Edu.

Although Marinakis can be a difficult negotiator, as Tottenham Hotspur discovered when they tried to capture Morgan Gibbs-White over the summer, Forest would be forced to offload huge swathes of talent if they do go down.

Championship Not On For Sels

Despite securing a creditable draw with Manchester City last time out, they finished the latest round of Premier League fixtures above 18th placed West Ham on goal difference alone. 

Spurs also find themselves in a perilous position, and are only one point better off than Nuno’s charges.

Sels started that contest at the Etihad Stadium but views Stefan Ortega’s arrival as an indication that his future at Forest could be far from certain.

Mads Hermansen has been a revelation in goal since returning to the Hammers' side in February with three clean sheets in five games, but aged 26 Nuno is understood to also want an experienced hand with Lukasz Fabianski and Alphonse Areola set to leave in the summer.