Deal or no deal for Slaven – the jury remains out

When Slaven Bilic signed for West Ham in June 2015 on a three-year contract, excitement was high at the club.

The former Croatia boss had been linked with a number of big sides in Europe so for the Hammers to secure his services was seen by many as a coup.

He took us to seventh and it’s easy to close our eyes and recall those heady days with wins over Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium and Liverpool at Anfield.

It all ended with a record high points total in the Premier League as we racked up 62 points which led us to Europa League qualification.

As we headed into the 2016/17 campaign, there were top six ambitions and even talk of a Champions League spot, the premier competition in Europe where the final is being played out between Real Madrid and Juventus this season.

Juve have been drawn out as the home team for that game in Cardiff and according to an article about Champions League final kits (Source: Betway Insider), they have won five of the six European finals they have been a part of when wearing their black-and-white stripes.

Our Europa League adventure ended against NK Domzale from Slovenia who had no problems, prevailing 4-2 after the two legs. They then were the heavy favourites to defeat Romania’s Astra Giurgiu in the play-off round but after a solid 1-1 draw away from home in the first leg, they were defeated 1-0 at the London Stadium, to fall from the competition.

The early exit in Europe did mean Bilic had no other distractions from the domestic schedule his side were set in the 2016/17 season but unfortunately we were left with little to shout about. Arguably our best performance came against Tottenham.

Unsurprisingly his future remains in the lap of the footballing gods and all depends on the first half of next season.

Can Bilic turn It Around This Summer?

If Bilic is going to find improvement next season and merit a contract extension he needs big board backing this summer and as usual we are linked with any number of players .

Our leading scorer remains Michail Antonio with just nine goals and our need of a quality striker or two has never been more pressing given the Carroll/Sakho scenario.

If Bilic can sign three or four players of quality players this summer a turnaround could well be on the cards but for now the jury remains out.