Sullivan and Bilic in Rush Green head to head

Slaven Bilic’s reign as West Ham United’s boss this afternoon looked to be drawing to an inevitable close.

Reports that the manager is set to meet David Sullivan tomorrow (Mon) were overtaken by events at Rush Green this afternoon when the chairman and manager both arrived for what may have been crunch talks.

Sullivan – as ambassador  – was at an open day for West Ham Ladies and we understand that he took the opportunity to order the manager to meet him at the event following yesterday’s horrible away defeat at Newcastle.

And it now seems it’s not so much a case of whether the axe will fall on the manager but when given Sullivan normally takes a short holiday during international breaks.

He and the rest of the board were appalled by what they saw at St James’ Park where, as just one example, full backs Pablo Zabaleta and Aaron Cresswell had clearly been told to hug the touchlines with the resulting huge spaces in behind them.

They were again shocked to see players performing out of position and there was huge sympathy for teenager Declan Rice who was subbed at half time after the mistake which led to the first goal.