West Ham suffered a shocking 3-nil defeat at the hands of Brighton & Hove Albion on Friday night, and despite growing concerns that the end of manager Slaven Bilic in the dugout is near, comments from co-owner David Sullivan suggests otherwise.
The Hammers have now lost 5 games and won just twice, sitting a level above the relegation zone on goal difference.
Nevertheless, West Ham are likely to stick with the Croatian till the end of the season when his contract expires.
Sullivan told Gary Neville on Sky Sports ahead of Friday’s loss: “If you change a manager it can give you two or three more points over a season statistically.
“I believe in morality and what’s right. If you sign a contract you desperately want to honour that contract unless things are desperate. I think the manager has a three-year contract and is entitled to these three years.
“After the season we will sit down and see if he wants to stay on and if we want him to stay on. That’s a long way off. He is entitled to three years. He didn’t sign a two-year contract or a one-year contract.”
Bilic added 4 players to the senior team over the summer, and appears not to be sure of his starting XI yet, a sentiment Sullivan shares.
“At this moment in time I don’t think Slaven knows what his best XI is but when he does we will have a team that’s very hard to beat,” he said
“We are disappointed with where we are at the moment but I still think we can have a good year.”
Sullivan and David Gold don’t have an history of firing managers, and were rock solid behind Bilic last term despite a similar run of poor games.
West Ham went without victory from matchday 11 to 15(3D 2L) and also between matchdays 25 and 31 (2D 5L), eventually finishing with 17 losses and 12 wins in the 2016-17 campaign, and at no time did the club indicate they were willing to part ways with the Croatian.
It doesn’t seem the story will have a different plot this term.
