Stan Collymore writes in the Daily Mirror today that he is prepared to give both the board and the manager the benefit of the doubt for West Ham’s poor start. He points out that history tells us the owners are not sackers but says it can see it going one way with the end of Bilic’s Eastend adventure.

I’m seeing that even among the most respectable Hammers fans there seems to be a bit of a feeling towards the West Ham hierarchy.A feeling like, ‘Okay, they’ve got us into the new stadium but they ­maybe can’t transition us from being one of London’s mid-sized clubs to one of London’s big-sized clubs’.

And that is why the guillotine is hovering above Slaven Bilic’s neck as he ­prepares his team to face Huddersfield on Monday. That’s where the pressure is really coming from. It certainly isn’t because Sullivan and Gold are ­hiring and firing chairmen based on a few bad ­results. History has taught us they are not.

But when supporters’ fingers start pointing towards the boardroom rather than the dugout, that’s when the ­problems really start for a manager. What’s fascinating about Sullivan and Gold, is that there doesn’t ever seem to be any middle ground. At times they are very professional. At other times West Ham is a comedy club. There’s no in-between.

The owners are standing on the touchline doing the crossed-arms ­salute – and when they do that they just look daft. Or they’re loading the bullets for people like Sporting Lisbon sporting director Bruno de Carvalho, who are only too happy to pull the trigger. But when Sullivan and Gold are at the ­other end of the scale – giving their managers time to breathe – they’re almost model owners. That’s why they need to be a bit more down the middle – perhaps a bit more hardline with their managers, but with less of the silly stuff going on around the club.

Like the majority of football fans, West Ham supporters won’t care who owns their club as long as they are moving them forwards.Let’s say someone new came along and took them to the Europa League or, with one great season, to the Champions League in the next five or six years, it’d be a case of ‘Sullivan and Gold who?’

It’s in that context that I don’t think Bilic is long for the East End world because owners are never ­happier than when it’s the manager getting it in the neck for the club’s ­problems, rather than those upstairs. Should Bilic be sacked anytime soon it would be a shame because, with the right owners, he CAN get West Ham to where the fans – and where Sullivan and Gold, to be fair – want the club to be.

I’m kind of 50/50 at the moment. I’m prepared to give Sullivan and Gold the benefit of the doubt rather than blaming them for West Ham’s start, and I’m prepared to give Bilic the same.But if this malaise continues into the autumn and winter then, I’m afraid for Bilic, there will only be one loser”