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Board to sweat it out with Bilic – but changes ahead!

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bilicbirkikaraWest Ham are unmoved in their support for manager Slaven Bilic despite the bitterly disappointing display against Swansea City at the London Stadium.

The three points which lifted the club into 15th spot in the Premier League were overshadowed by a horrible performance brightened only by the appearance Manu Lanzini and the Diafra Sakho goal at the death.

But the board believe that the fourth clean sheet in five games and seven points from the last four League matches is not the time to be considering the manager’s position however loud the fan outcry on social media – notably Twitter.

With winnable games on the immediate horizon they are looking – like the fans – for the manager to find the right system of play, something which has notably avoided him this season.

The decision to stick with Bilic however, has as much to do with there being no natural successor given that the Croatian is firmly wedded to his backroom staff who loyally follow him wherever he goes leaving the club without any natural successor.

However, the simple fact is that come the end of the season there will be an inevitable parting of the ways with most having now seen that the manager has “shown what he’s got” and that it’s not enough to take the club to the much discussed “next level.”

Even were the manager to give the Hammers a finish of between eighth and tenth this season the general mood is that it would be time for a change.

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Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!"

Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

0 comments

  • mooro66uk says:

    Yeah because were so much bigger than that. Ain’t we?

  • Poplar Hammer says:

    How many times can this story be rewritten? And moving to the next level is not just about the Manager – you need to spend money, not focus on the loan market

    • schuauthing says:

      We’ve spent sh#t loads of money mate in the last two seasons alone.

      • Dave says:

        Net £9m this year, net £15m last year. A whopping £24m !
        Wolves and Boro spent more in the championship.

      • Hammerkip says:

        Ha ha ha are you joking you need to look more I n To ur club mate ..that’s one of the biggest problems No money has been spent as my friend below says 9millon in two seasons wtf is that in today’s terms …ffs

    • Essexirons says:

      Loan market? Other than Hart who have we got on loan??

      • Poplar Hammer says:

        We didn’t get Slav’s No.1 midfield target and he was offerred loans instead. Previous years there are loads of other examples

  • sleepswithdafishes says:

    Trouble is that he has lost the supporters, so he needs miracles to please anyone now. Of course a few impressive wins can change everything, supporters being prone to forget the bad games while watching the good ones. Impressive wins look like miracles right now.

  • schuauthing says:

    Suddenly everyone’s a mathmatician. We spent £20m on Ayew, £20m on Arnoutavic, £16m in Hernadez etc etc . Broke our record transfer at least three times. No one is interested net spend. Evertons net spend this window is probably £0 but does that mean they’ve not spent? If you’re comparing us to wolves and boro you’ve really got a problem.

  • master says:

    spent plenty. could’ve spent more of course.
    mostly bought decent players. some duds.
    spend more isn’t the answer i’m afraid.

    we have the squad to play far better than we have been and should finish top 10 easily. sadly, despite being such a thoroughly nice bloke, slaven’s limitations are holding us back.

  • Essexirons says:

    Why is it that the fans, media & everybody else on planet earth can see that we have been pi$$ poor since ĺast 3rd of 2015/16 but the board can’t??
    We have signed the best goal scorer the club have had since Ashton, then play him out of position & stick the chosen one there instead. You just have to look at Chico’s face when he was pulled off. Sakho’s last minute goal doesn’t hide the fact we were dire again for 89.5 minutes.
    Sadly it should be now that Bilic goes & let someone else to get this team playing as good as they should be. Imho we have a squad that is strong enough to be top 10 looking up.
    Struggle to beat Swansea & get slaughtered against every top six side.

    • Hammerkip says:

      Totaling agree mate ..

    • Carrerageorge says:

      Hernandez will possibly score more when paired with Sakho but his strike rate during his career has typically been 1 in 2 or in 3, so his 3 in 7 with us is right on those figures at a time when he has not been getting much service due to the injuries to Lanzini and Antonio.
      Saturday was very poor and we did struggle to beat Swansea, but we did beat them and score, unlike the likes of Southampton and Tottenham, so we are the only team to score at home v Swansea in four games this season.

  • djsteves says:

    This looks to me like there is more to it than first meets the eye. My guess is that having spoken to Ancelotti, Tuchel etc the master negotiator that is David ‘stereotypical short-man syndrome’ Sullivan couldn’t convince any of them, or anybody else, to come and work at the madhouse that is West Ham at the moment under the dildo brothers and perma-sulk Brady. The three of them can’t keep their mouths closed for five minutes and have not a shred of class between them. Bilic should go, but they undermined him so much last season and made a very public job of it. Anybody remotely decent is going to look at them, laugh and then run a mile! Imagine having somebody who has won as much as Ancelotti having to take advice on players and the team’s play from our board?!

    It is madness keeping Bilic on until the summer, we’ve all changed jobs at some point and we all know that nobody is 100% motivated working their notice period! it is just human nature. Sullivan must know this, so he is willing to subject every fan who pays their hard earned money to watch the mighty hammers to another season of mediocrity at best. He’s bottled another big decision and he doesn’t have the quality or nous to provide a better option.

    • Lazurus. rises like a salmon says:

      👍👍👍 😉

    • Carrerageorge says:

      If anyone decent will avoid West Ham due to the owners what would we gain by sacking Slav? Once we have Lanzini and Antonio healthy after the international break we should be able to hit mid table which, historically under most managers, is where we tend to be.

  • adji says:

    Ooh crap… Move to the next level they say.. They only need highly rated figure manager or just forever mediocre

  • jono66 says:

    “Next level” lol
    I’m afraid with the joke that’s a 3 way collective at WHUFC –
    And Slaven finally being found out tactically-
    I think the only “next level”
    Is downwards !!!!
    If this mess continues we are going to be playing “level championship ”
    !!!!!

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