West Ham have appointed Scott Parker as head coach on a two-and-a-half-year contract, bringing the former midfielder back to the club roughly 15 years after he left as a player. He replaces Nuno Espirito Santo, whose departure was confirmed shortly before Parker's arrival was announced.

The move carried an air of inevitability. As Sky Sports News put it, once Nuno's exit became public, only one name seemed to make sense for the Hammers. Parker's managerial calling card is promotion: he has taken three clubs up from the Championship, a track record that maps neatly onto West Ham's current predicament.

Not everyone is handing out full marks for the process. The Guardian's Jacob Steinberg argued the club took far too long to act, noting it took West Ham around six months to reach a decision on Nuno, and urged the board to now step back and let Parker do what he does best rather than fret over how his sides might fare in the Premier League.

The appointment is a bet on a specialist. Parker's teams have repeatedly found a way out of the second tier, and West Ham are banking on the familiarity of a former favourite — plus that promotion pedigree — to steady a drifting club. Whether he can roll back the years in east London is now the question that will define the Hammers' season.