Slaven Bilic has become the fourth Premiership manager to be relieved of his responsibilities this season after West Ham’s board opted to show the Croatian gaffer the door following their 4-1 weekend loss to Liverpool. Bilic leaves West Ham after nearly 2 and a half years in charge, with the Hammers currently in the bottom three after winning just two of their opening eleven league games in 2017/18.
Bilic however remains a fan favourite, having presided over one of the most successful seasons in the club’s history- his first one and the club’s last at the Boleyn, when they claimed many big name scalps en route to finishing 7th in the league. Expectations were high in 2016/17 following that record breaking season, but the unavailability of Dimitri Payet, so instrumental in 15/16, saw the club stutter and finally finish in 11th place.
The 2017/18 season began with West Ham acquiring big name reinforcements in key areas- Adrian arriving in goal, veteran Pablo Zabaleta to bolster the defence, the maverick Marko Arnautovic for a club record fee from Stoke and a proven league poacher in Javier Hernandez from Bayer Leverkusen. They were also linked with Sporting’s William Carvalho, but that deal didn’t go through owing to the board playing hardball over the former’s transfer fee, despite the Portuguese side being willing to sell. Bilic however publicly went on record that he had got the signings he wanted, and the board responded by saying he had their backing to stay till the end of the season.
With the London stadium not available for the first few weeks of the season owing to the World Athletics Championships, the Hammers had to start with three away games at Old Trafford, St.Mary’s and St.James’ Park, and went on to lose all three. They bounced back with a win in their first game at home against Huddersfield, but the pressure was always there on Bilic, with Crystal Palace opting to sack their manager after just four games.
To the players’ credit, they seemed to get a win out of the bag for their manager when it seemed a loss would send him out- the wins over Swansea at home and Spurs in the League Cup were prime examples, but the weekend game against Liverpool proved to be one step too far, and the Hammers, utterly inconsistent, were beaten 4-1 by Jurgen Klopp’s side.
The bookmakers have David Moyes as heavy favourites to step into the vaccuum left by Bilic, with the retention of goalkeeping coach Chris Woods also pointing towards the former’s arrival. Woods was associated with Moyes at Everton and United, and is the sole member of Bilic’s back-room staff to be retained. In a television interview over the weekend, Moyes also hinted that he would be interested in the West Ham job should it be offered to him. The other options considered by the West Ham board, according to sources, included Carlo Ancelotti, Sean Dyche, Ronald Koeman and Paulo Sousa.
Despite the struggles towards the latter part of his tenure, Bilic still leaves West Ham as their most successful league manager in the modern era, with his points per game ratio of 1.33 ahead of all his competitors. However that figure was as high as 1.63 at the end of the first season, with poor second (1.13) and third (0.82) ones dragging his average down, as the table below shows you.
