HELL FOR BOSSES WHERE ONE GOAL SEES AXE SWING

EVERY manager has different pressures.

Simon Grayson was sacked as Sunderland boss this week, after just 125 days and 18 games.

He paid the price for failing to arrest the club’s slide to a record-equalling 19 home games without a win.

Jurgen Klopp is perceived to be under pressure at Anfield as he is judged against what Liverpool did in the 70s and 80s.

If he is judged by their recent standards, Klopp is doing relatively well after getting them back into the Champions League. They are fine margins. And no more so than at West Ham where, it would seem, Slaven Bilic (above) is on a hiding to nothing.

Grayson was axed minutes after Sunderland drew 3-3 with Bolton.

They were ahead at one point in the game and, ultimately, a manager’s future and a club’s philosophy can be decided on one goal.

It is similar for Bilic because he is back to being under pressure on the strength of conceding a 97th-minute equaliser at Crystal Palace.

It is sheer and utter madness – and no way to run a football club.

West Ham beat Spurs in the League Cup and that was a huge result for Bilic. Then they went 2-0 up at Crystal Palace, were leading 2-1 into injurytime and then a moment of madness from Michail Antonio concedes possession and allows Palace to grab a leveller.

Two days later, Bilic reads that he is back under pressure as the club’s hierarchy was not impressed by the way they conceded a late goal.

That is just crazy. Why not just put the owners in charge and see if they can stop Antonio making a schoolboy mistake.

But it also leaves Bilic in an impossible situation.

His contract is up at the end of the season.

He knows he is going, the players know he is going and, under those circumstances, it is difficult to motivate a dressing room.

Bilic has never lost the dressing room, the players are still playing for him. Yet there have been points when he thought he would either be leaving the club or would get the sack.

The recent home defeat to Brighton and the loss at Newcastle earlier in the season left Bilic thinking it was the end. But it just raises the question as to how anyone can work like that.

There must be something wrong at Sunderland where manager after manager fails. The owners have to look at themselves.

And the same goes for West Ham. Patience is required since no boss can go from game to game being judged on one goal.