Slav’s future may depend on top ten finish!

Slaven Bilic’s future is back in the melting pot as the club continue to pursue a minimum requirement of a top ten finish.

Expectations have been regularly revised throughout the campaign but the big yardstick by which Slaven will be measured is  whether the Irons finish in the top or bottom half following the club’s recent slump.

At one stage the club was talking top six, before top eight and top half became rapid fall-back positions in the light of results.

With the team failing  to win  since beating Southampton on February 4 and just two points collected from 12 since worried frowns are appearing again..

The popular boss  looked bang on course to lead the club into his third season after Christmas but ultimately club chief’s will make their decision when assessing his overall performance in the annual reviews that follow every campaign.

The defeat at Bournemouth has thrown a different perspective over the manager’s situation after the team was out battled and again lost points in the closing minutes.

Memories of games against West Brom and Spurs returned when the team was caught in the closing minutes with some questioning their ability to see games out possibly via the often discussed fitness levels of the team.

With Leicester City, Hull and Swansea three of the four next games with Arsenal sandwiched between them the manager will know what must be done as the season’s countdown continues.

He will know too that Roberto Mancini has been regularly mentioned as a possible replacement and that even Claudio Raniei could enter calculations if the club cannot recover from another dismal run of results.