Nuno Espirito Santo often joked in his press conferences that he rarely has time to rest, and those words will ring true in the coming weeks as he plans how to navigate West Ham United’s immediate return to the Premier League.Relegation to the Championship was confirmed on Sunday, as Nuno’s side finished the season in 18th on 39 points. On Wednesday, it was confirmed that Nuno would remain as head coach despite speculation surrounding his future. The board opted against activating a clause in his contract where he could be sacked without compensation.The last time the Portuguese managed in the second tier during the 2017-18 campaign, he won promotion to the top flight with Wolves. Nuno will hope history repeats itself, but before the new season gets underway in August, it will be a busy few months.Here are the five things the head coach must fix.Leadership voidThere was a lack of leaders in the team following the noticeable releases of Aaron Cresswell, Michail Antonio, Kurt Zouma and Vladimir Coufal last summer. Graham Potter, the then-head coach, opted for significant change, but it hindered the club in the long run.Antonio, the club’s all-time leading goalscorer in the Premier League, explained the consequence of this in an interview with The I: “As a manager, you’ve got to come in and understand the culture of the club. And I just don’t feel like (Potter) did. He came in, he got rid of all the senior pros: me, (Lukas) Fabianski (who later rejoined as third-choice goalkeeper), Cresswell, Coufal and Edson Alvarez — the captain of Mexico.“Then, within three, four weeks of getting rid of those players and the season starts, the first thing he says is, we have no leaders in the changing room. How can you say you’ve got no leaders in the changing rooms if you get rid of all the leaders? So it was just, I feel like it was Graham Potter, who kind of put the team in bad stead.”Jarrod Bowen, who was omitted from England’s 26-man World Cup squad, was appointed captain by former manager Julen Lopetegui in August 2024. During West Ham’s poor run of form, the 29-year-old attempted to galvanise the group by calling team meetings. But it did not have the desired effect, and the forward has received criticism for his lack of leadership from sections of the fanbase.Bowen has not coped well with shouldering the burden of responsibility, but Nuno can ease pressure on the attacker — if he stays — by recruiting more experienced pros this summer.It worked to his benefit at Nottingham Forest, where Nuno leaned on the leadership of quartet Nikola Milenkovic, Ryan Yates, Chris Wood and Nicolas Dominguez. Barring Bowen, only Tomas Soucek has leadership traits. It is a huge void, and one Nuno must urgently address.Bowen is one of the few leaders in the West Ham squad (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)Persuading key players to stayThe Athletic previously reported four to five players are expected to leave this summer. The club need to raise £150m in player sales and Mateus Fernandes, who has interest from Paris Saint-Germain and other European suitors, will be sold. Crysencio Summerville, Alphonse Areola, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Jean-Clair Todibo are all unlikely to remain beyond the end of the transfer window.