Joint-chairman David Sullivan and David Gold have released a joint statement on WHUFC.com
“It is with disappointment and heavy hearts that we have made the decision to relieve Slaven Bilic of his duties as West Ham United manager.
Since joining the Club in the summer of 2015, Slaven has conducted himself throughout with honesty and integrity, and shown great determination and commitment to the role.
In his first season – our final campaign at the Boleyn Ground – he led the team to a memorable finish that no Hammers fan will ever forget, and gave us a 3-2 victory against Manchester United in our final home game there that will go down in West Ham United history.
During the summer, the Board invested heavily signing the players Slaven believed would complete the squad he needed to push the Club back towards the level we had reached in his first season, and we believe we have the players capable of doing that.
Sadly, performances and results have not been of the expected standard and, in recent weeks, we have not seen enough indication of the required improvement to give us the encouragement that things would change and we would meet our Premier League aspirations this season.
As custodians of the Football Club it is our responsibility as a Board to do what is best for West Ham United, and we believe a change is now necessary to ensure we can begin to move the team back in the right direction.
We see this as an exciting opportunity to appoint a quality manager to the position to inject fresh ideas, organisation and enthusiasm into a very talented squad.
We would like to thank Slaven for his efforts and wish him all the very best in his future endeavours. He will always be welcome at London Stadium, as a former player and manager who always gave everything for the Club. We would also like to place on record our sincere thanks to the team of coaches that assisted him.
We will now focus our entire efforts on bringing in the manager we believe can get the best out of the current squad of players and steer the Club towards the top half of the table as quickly as possible.
David Sullivan and David Gold”
Well done! It should have been done at the end of last season though.
Smoke and mirrors once again from the Daves.
Gold and Sullivan bought Payet and Lanzini. That’s the only reason Bilic lasted this long. It’s been fairly obvious since Payet that left Bilic isn’t good enough.
As custodians of the Football Club DON’T MUCK IT UP BY APPOINTING MOYES.
Nice statement from them. Sums up how I feel. I am glad that as a club we give managers too long. Better that way round. Sad day. Hopeful for the rest of the season for the first time since pre season.
I was there for the last game at Upton Park. Unforgettable. Thank you Slav.
About time, they let things drag on for too long!
What I would take issue with is the strength of the Squad, I think it’s thin, lacking in quality and ageing. Players that have been brought in at considerable cost, are all underperforming – Ayew, Hernandez and Arnautovic are undoubtedly talented but have been used out of position or not at all and have it all to prove. Others, like Cresswell, Antonio, Ogbonna and Obiang have all gone backwards this Season. I’m afraid Noble is going downhill quickly and will never get back to his old form.
The only one’s with any credit this Season are Joe Hart and Zabaletta, who have acted like the true professional they are.
David Moyes has got his hands full, he’s a bit ‘old school’ and that’s what West Ham needs – I hope he does well.
I agree with one or two exceptions Arnautovic was and is a big gamble,a real maverick who’s temperament is not want we need in a relegation battle, his previous team mates have publically expressed that opinion. Hart really is no better than Adrian, had a really good game at Selhurst Park but not really impressed with his goals against column. But your right too many under performing players, but to be fair playing out of position doesn’t help. I am still convinced the root of all our problems is the lack of a quality midfield, that needs to be addressed asap Obiang Fernandez, and sadly Noble are just not up to it and Kouyate flatters to deceive a lot of the time.