It’s been coming for a while but Saturday’s 4-1 home defeat against Liverpool proved to be the final straw, with West Ham confirming this morning that Slaven Bilic has been relieved of his duties.
The club have pumped out a statement confirming Bilic’s departure, in which they thanked the Croat for his input over the last two-and-a-half years before iterating that the board now feel that “a change is now necessary” in order to arrest the vague malaise that has descended upon the London Stadium so far this season.
The Chairmen and board of West Ham United would like to place on record their thanks and gratitude to Slaven Bilic and his team.https://t.co/rg0Jvoh9Tf
— West Ham United (@WestHamUtd) November 6, 2017
The hefty loss against Liverpool eventually saw the Hammers slither down into the relegation zone when Bournemouth won the following day to leap above them.
David Moyes has made it well known he’s angling to step into Bilic’s breach, openly stating such on live television several hours before a decision had been made regarding the latter’s future.
David Moyes confirms he is interested in managing West Ham, but says he has had no contact with the club yet. pic.twitter.com/AQdoWeG3wg
— Uber West Ham (@UberWestHam) November 5, 2017
So much for not publicly speculating on the fortunes of a fellow manager, eh? The weakest pseudo-code-of-honour currently in operation in any vocation, in any walk of life. “I don’t want to discuss X, but…”
It’s being widely reported as a nigh-on inevitability that Moyes will be appointed over the international break, which should be enough to send a pang of dread coursing through the very fibre of most West Ham fans given his previous forays into relegation avoidance via systematic morale obliteration.
Gold + Sullivan "We see this as exciting opp to appoint quality manager to inject fresh ideas organisation + enthusiasm into talented squad"
— Simon Stone (@sistoney67) November 6, 2017
Yeah, good luck with that.