Bilic out, Moyes in

With only eleven games played this season, yet again we are talking about the sack of a manager. West Ham sacked the long-suffering Slaven Bilic and employed former Sunderland boss David Moyes to take his place. Slaven has been suffering from an illness that required surgery but he soldiered on. He built his team around Dimitri Payet and with the relatively small Upton Park, he was able to organise the squad as a counter-attacking crew. It also helped that he had talented and proven players like Alvaro Arbeloa, Alex Song and Victor Moses in the team.  He had great success in his first season and there were hopes he would eventually bring in a trophy. That was how impressive the team was. However, the powers that be at West Ham had bigger dreams. They wanted financial stability, they wanted huge profits. Hence they battled for and acquired the London Olympics stadium. More space for spectators, more money for the owners.

Also, Bilic lost his talisman Payet , to make matters worse for him, the club’s golden boy Andy Carroll was always injured. He could not get in a striker who was better than Carroll as the owners would not agree to their record buy staying on the bench when he is fit. Things went downhill for Slaven and the club from thence. The club panicked, the players knew the manager was a dead man walking, the manager was always under pressure knowing it was just a matter of time before he got the sack. Confidence was at his lowest and as Ian Wright said, it probably came as a relief to Bilic as he was finally told to leave. To be honest it was a relief to us observers as well. It was uncomfortable watching a good man and brilliant manager going through such emotional torture.

In came David Moyes, at least until the end of the season. The question now is, is Moyes the right candidate? You will recall that at his last job, Moyes took Sunderland to relegation. Now, when you want to save your club from relegation, one would expect you to go for a manager who has previously saved a club from relegation and not one who actually took one there. Sam Allardyce would have been everyone’s first choice, but he was already at West Ham and had to leave because the fans and owners complained his tactics were too defensive and physical. As they pointed out, that was not the “West Ham” way.

I learnt West Ham reached out to Ancelloti and Mancini but both Italians were not interested in working interim for a club fighting relegation, especially one that was not ready to make money available for recruitment in January. So Karen Brady and the two Davids settled for another David (Moyes). In football, a manager is usually rated as good as his last job. Moyes’ last job was at Sunderland and he led them to relegation. West Ham fans are said not to be happy with his employment but the owners appear to have looked beyond his latest failures and focused on his past successes. They must have remembered he spent 11 years at Everton, leading them to the eighth position and higher on nine occasions. They must have remembered that he won the LMA manager of the year award on three different occasions during his stay at Goodison Park. They must have remembered that he was a Manchester United manager and must have thought to themselves if he was good enough for United then he must be good enough for West Ham.

Moyes realises this is likely his last chance to prove himself in the big league. This will add further pressure on him, whether he will allow the pressure to hinder him or spur him to higher heights is entirely up to him.