appoint

Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis sacked Nuno just three matches into the campaign and replaced him with Postecoglou.

The Australian failed to win a game and his dismissal – 39 days after his appointment on 9 September – meant his stint at Forest is the shortest permanent managerial reign in Premier League history.

Dyche was on the books of Forest as a youth team player in the late 1980s while Brian Clough was manager, but never made a first-team appearance.

He has not had a managerial job since being sacked by Everton in January after just under two years in charge of the Toffees.

Dyche won 21, lost 31 and drew 23 of his 75 Premier League matches as Everton boss, guiding the club to 17th and 15th-place finishes.

Prior to that Dyche spent nearly a decade as Burnley manager between October 2012 and April 2022, twice winning promotion to the top flight and helping the Clarets qualify for Europe for the first time since 1967.

He also had a stint in charge of Watford for the 2011–2012 season, only to lose his job following a change of ownership.

Kettering-born Dyche spent his entire playing career as a defender outside of the top flight, making more than 500 appearances for clubs including Chesterfield, Bristol City, Millwall, Watford and Northampton.

Rowley spent four years in charge of Leigh between 2012 and 2016 before spending two years as head coach of Toronto Wolfpack.

He initially joined Salford as a coaching consultant in 2019 and stepped up to the top job for the 2022 campaign.

His first three seasons in charge brought two play-off finishes but any hopes of building on those in 2025 were scuppered by a litany of off-field issues.

The Red Devils were beset by financial problems, which led to the vast majority of the senior playing squad leaving and Rowley being forced to pull together sides week to week.

Against that chaotic backdrop they managed three Super League wins and ended with two points deducted for failing to fulfil a fixture against Wakefield.

Before their final game of the season last month he admitted that he was “relieved to have reached the end of the year.”

“I’m pretty proud that I managed to get the team to the finish line,” Rowley told BBC Radio Manchester as he reflected on the 2025 season.

“That’s a bit sad really because you should never want the finish line to come in rugby league where the last game is the most important.

“Everybody at the club, certainly the staff, have been immense. I’m surrounded by good people. My staff have become my best friends and I think the moral compass of the staff at this club is unparalleled.”

Eddie Howe was just a couple of days into an end-of-season break when the Newcastle head coach’s phone “exploded” last summer.

Sporting director Paul Mitchell had just announced that he was departing.

While there were initial tensions between the pair, Howe was the first to recognise that such a figure “protects the manager from a lot of things”.

That is why the arrival of Ross Wilson is so significant for Newcastle.

Rather than rushing into the appointment – despite the need for a sporting director during a draining transfer window – Newcastle have been keen to recruit the right person.

In Ross Wilson, who already has a good relationship with Howe, they feel they have that man.

It will fall to Wilson to help plot the medium to long-term strategy of the club.

And, after a period of boardroom upheaval, Newcastle will hope the Scot will stick around long enough to see that vision through.

The announcement came after last-ditch talks by outgoing premier Sebastien Lecornu failed to find a solution to crisis.

French President Emmanuel Macron will name a new prime minister within the next 48 hours, his office has said, in the latest effort to chart a path out of the worst political crisis of his presidency.

The announcement on Wednesday followed two days of last-ditch talks with party leaders by outgoing Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu in a bid to break the country’s political deadlock, after his cabinet lineup, unveiled on Sunday, was rejected by allies and rivals alike.

The Elysee presidential office said in a statement that Lecornu’s discussions with various parties had concluded that a majority of lawmakers were not in favour of parliament being dissolved for early elections, and that there was “a platform for stability” that could make it possible for a budget to be passed by the year’s end.

“On this basis, the President of the Republic will appoint a Prime Minister within the next 48 hours,” said the statement.

Macron thanked Lecornu for his work since Monday to resolve the crisis, the office said.

Ahead of the announcement, it had been unclear whether Macron would opt to reappoint Lecornu or name a replacement, call snap elections or even resign himself.

Escalating crisis

In September, Macron tasked Lecornu – the fifth prime minister he has installed in less than two years – with forming a government after the divided French parliament toppled his predecessor, Francois Bayrou, over a much-maligned austerity budget intended to tackle a debt crisis.

But despite Lecornu’s promises of a departure from Bayrou’s approach, his cabinet, unveiled on Sunday evening, immediately drew fierce criticism from both the right and left for containing many of the same faces from the previous administration.

Lecornu resigned the following day, making his 14-hour administration the shortest in modern French history, but then added to the confusion when he announced he would hold 48 hours of talks at Macron’s request to try to agree on a new cabinet.

The move prompted renewed criticism of the increasingly isolated Macron, including from former premier Edouard Philippe, once a close ally of the president, who was one of many calling for presidential elections to resolve the crisis.

‘I tried everything’

Speaking to French TV earlier Wednesday, Lecornu said he had told Macron that the prospects of snap elections had diminished as there was a majority in the lower house opposed to the dissolution of parliament.

“I tried everything,” he said of his efforts to find a deal to end the crisis. “This evening, my mission is finished.”

He suggested that a more technocratic and less political administration could follow, saying that any new cabinet appointments should not harbour ambitions to stand in the next presidential elections.

He also pushed back against calls for snap presidential polls ahead of the scheduled 2027 elections, saying it was “not the time to change the president”.

“Let’s not make the French believe that it’s the president who votes the budget,” he said.

The French parliament has been sharply divided since Macron, in response to surging gains by the far right, announced snap elections last year, resulting in a hung parliament.

With no governing majority, the parliament has been unable to approve a crucial budget to tackle France’s growing debt crisis. Meanwhile, proposed spending cuts have prompted nationwide protests, while opposition parties – who are calling for early elections and are pledging to block any new cabinet – have seized momentum.

ATLANTA — The head of a nonpartisan agency tasked with finding a prosecutor to take over the Georgia election interference case against President Trump and others is asking for more time after a judge set a two-week deadline for that appointment to be made.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who’s overseeing the case, wrote in an order Friday that if the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council doesn’t appoint a new prosecutor or request a “particularized extension” within 14 days, he would dismiss it. The fate of the case has been in limbo since Fulton County District Atty. Fani Willis was disqualified from continuing the prosecution over an “appearance of impropriety” caused by a romantic relationship she had with the lead prosecutor.

Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council, said in a court filing Monday that his office has yet to receive the physical case file and does not expect to receive it for about four weeks. He asked McAfee to reconsider his order or to give him at least 90 days after he receives the case file to appoint a new prosecutor.

Without the case file, Skandalakis wrote that he “cannot intelligently answer questions of anyone requested to take the appointment or to do his own due diligence in finding a prosecutor who is not encumbered by a significant appearance of impropriety.”

He noted the case is one of 21 waiting to have a prosecutor assigned by his office. So far in 2025, he wrote, 448 criminal matters have been referred to his office because of a conflict of interest or a recusal by the relevant elected prosecutor.

“Each case requires individual review and assignment due to the unique nature of conflicts and the facts and circumstances of the particular case,” he wrote. Because of the complexity of the election case and the extensive resources required to handle it, “it will require time” to find someone to take it on, the filing says.

Even if a new prosecutor is named, it is unlikely that any prosecution against Trump could move forward while he is the sitting president. But there are 14 other people still facing charges in the case, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani.

If a new prosecutor is named, that person could continue on the track that Willis had charted, decide to pursue only some charges or dismiss the case altogether.

Willis announced the indictment against Trump and 18 others in August 2023. She used the state’s anti-racketeering law to allege a wide-ranging conspiracy to try to illegally overturn Trump’s narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

Defense attorneys sought Willis’ removal after the revelation in January 2024 that she had engaged in a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she had hired to lead the case. The defense attorneys said the relationship created a conflict of interest, alleging that Willis personally profited from the case when Wade used his earnings to pay for vacations the pair took.

McAfee rebuked Willis, saying in an order in March 2024 that her actions showed a “tremendous lapse in judgment.” But he said he did not find a conflict of interest that would disqualify Willis. He ultimately ruled that Willis could remain on the case if Wade resigned, which the special prosecutor did hours later.

Defense attorneys appealed that ruling, and the Georgia Court of Appeals removed Willis from the case in December, citing an “appearance of impropriety.” The high court last month declined to hear Willis’ appeal, putting the case in the lap of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council.

Brumback writes for the Associated Press.

West Ham have appointed former Nottingham Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo as head coach after sacking Graham Potter.

Nuno, 51, has signed a three-year contract with the Hammers and will take charge of his first match on Monday away at Everton in the Premier League.

Potter was dismissed on Saturday morning after only eight months in charge, with the club 19th in the table.

Nuno joins West Ham after being sacked on 9 September by Forest, who he guided to seventh in the Premier League last season – their highest finish since 1994-95.

“I am very pleased to be here and very proud to be representing West Ham United,” he said.

“My objective is to work hard to get the very best from the team and ensure that we are as competitive as we possibly can be. The work has already started and I am looking forward to the challenge that is ahead.”

Nuno joins West Ham shortly after a 21-month stint at the City Ground, where he was sacked only three games into this season.

He took his first training session in east London on Saturday afternoon before the club’s match at Everton on Monday.

West Ham said Nuno will be assisted in the interim by academy coaches Mark Robson, Steve Potts, Gerard Prenderville and Billy Lepine, with a further announcement on his coaching and backroom staff to be made in due course.

The Hammers took only three points from their opening five league games this season under Potter.

After dismissing the 50-year-old, West Ham said they believed “a change is necessary in order to help improve the team’s position in the Premier League as soon as possible”.

They added: “Results and performances over the course of the second half of last season and the start of the 2025-26 season have not matched expectations.”

In a statement via the League Managers Association, Potter said: “I am incredibly disappointed to be leaving West Ham, particularly without being able to achieve what we set out to achieve at the start of our journey in east London.

“I do, however, fully acknowledge that the results have just not been good enough up to now.”

Saturday’s 2-1 defeat by Palace was West Ham’s fifth in six league and cup games this season.

Potter replaced Spaniard Julen Lopetegui, who was sacked in January after six months in charge, with the Hammers 14th in the table.

“It’s a proud day to be head coach of this amazing club – big tradition, big history, big expectations, big challenge,” Potter said when he was appointed on 9 January.

But the former Chelsea and Brighton boss found wins difficult to come by.

West Ham, who sold Ghana forward Mohammed Kudus to Tottenham for £55m in July, spent £126m on eight new arrivals in the summer, including the £38m purchase of Portuguese midfielder Mateus Fernandes from Southampton in August.

But losses to Sunderland, Chelsea, Tottenham and Palace have left the club in the bottom three. They also went out of the Carabao Cup in the second round with a 3-2 defeat by fellow strugglers Wolves.

That led to West Ham issuing a statement acknowledging “results and performances on the pitch over the past two seasons have not met the standards we set for ourselves”.

Disgruntled fans staged a demonstration against the club’s board before the Palace match, and the owners have reacted by dismissing Potter.

Poor results on the pitch led to Potter becoming a viral trend on social media, with people using AI technology to swap his face on to other celebrities, including Barbie, US President Donald Trump and the Chuckle Brothers.

Speaking on Friday, Potter said he had not been taking it too seriously.

“It made my 15-year-old son laugh a lot so you have to accept what comes with it [the job],” he said.

“At times [that is] ridicule but that is just the environment we are in and it is what it is.”

Castleford Tigers have appointed Ryan Carr as their new head coach on a three year-deal.

The 37-year-old Australian, currently an assistant to Shane Flanagan at National Rugby League (NRL) side St George Illawarra Dragons, will take over the Super League club from the start of the 2026 season.

Cas sacked Danny McGuire as head coach in July after he won just four of his 18 games in charge.

“I feel a lot of excitement on the direction that the club is heading in the near future,” Carr told the club website., external

“It deserves to be better than where it is, and that’s where we need to take it. I feel the room for growth is really fast at the club – I’m excited to get started.”

Tigers are 10th in the Super League table after losing 17 of their 22 games this year.

Carr has previously coached in England with Featherstone Rovers and Leeds Rhinos.

He has also worked under Rhinos coach Brad Arthur during his time in charge of Parramatta Eels and had a spell as interim head coach of the Illawarra Dragons in 2023.

Tigers director of rugby Chris Chester, who is leading the team until the end of this season, added: “He’s a highly thought about coach who has a great knowledge of the game and a great work ethic.”

Liverpool have named former Manchester City boss Gareth Taylor as their new head coach.

The Reds have been without a permanent manager since sacking Matt Beard in February, with Amber Whiteley taking charge on an interim basis for the remainder of 2024-25.

Taylor was sacked by City in March just five days before the Women’s League Cup final.

“Everyone in football knows about the history, size and potential of this club, and I am really looking forward to the task ahead,” Taylor said.

“Our aim is to create a team that supporters can be proud of, which plays good football and which will hopefully bring success along the way.”

The Welshman began working with City’s academy in 2011 and was appointed head coach in 2020.

He won the FA Cup during his first season and led the club to League Cup glory in 2022, while his side missed out on the Women’s Super League (WSL) title on goal difference in 2023-24.

Liverpool finished seventh last season, 35 points adrift of champions Chelsea.