NOW IT’S BILIC OUT MOYES IN
Hammers manager hadn’t lost the dressing room but players feared he HAD lost belief in himself
DAVID MOYES will this week be handed a chance to revive his Premier League career with West Ham.
The 54-year-old Scot (above) – sacked by Manchester United, Real Sociedad and Sunderland – has agreed a deal until the end of the
IN the end it wasn’t about the defeat to Liverpool, which saw his side outclassed.
It was about the lack of organisation in his team. The lack of fitness among his players. The air of resignation that has come to encapsulate his leadership.
For Slaven Bilic, this has been coming for some time.
Twice already this season – after 3-0 defeats by newlypromoted Newcastle and Brighton – he responded by shaking the players’ hands and thanking them for their efforts in the expectation that the sack awaited him.
If Bilic has been so willing to give up so easily, how on earth could his players be expected to stand up and be counted?
It is not true to say that he had lost the dressing room. It is true, however, to say that the players fear he has lost belief in himself.
The strategist who saw off England as boss of Croatia 10 years ago has been replaced by a coach whose side is a soft touch – one of the easiest to play against in the Premier League.
It is a myth to say that the West Ham board have not backed him.
Alvaro Arbeloa, Sofiane Feghouli, Havard Nordtveit and Ashley Fletcher are just some of the players that were either too old, too young or just not good enough to hold down a place in the side.
Bilic did not want Portugal’s Sporting midfielder William Carvalho. Why on earth not? When another midfielder that would have improved the Hammers, Grzegorz Krychowiak, went to West Brom instead of West Ham, the Irons owners could not contain their frustration.
They made it public. We were seeing the beginning of the end. Record signing Marko Arnautovic looked hugely overpriced during the summer at £24million, but Bilic wanted him.
The Austrian (below) justified his decision to jump ship from Stoke by insisting the Hammers had more ambition.
They are laughing their socks off right now at the bet365 Stadium. There is no doubt whatsoever about who came out better from that deal. Arnautovic was sent off in his second Premier League start in August, at Southampton, and went downhill from there.
Italy striker Simone Zaza arrived last season on an expensive loan deal from Juventus. Unhappy and demotivated, he severed his ties with Bilic and quit the Hammers for Valencia.
This season Zaza is the second-highest scorer in La Liga behind Lionel Messi.
The statistic has not been lost on the people who make the decisions at West Ham.
How was it that Bilic was not able to get the best out of him?
How is it that Bilic can have a proven goalscorer such as Javier Hernandez in his side, yet fail to get the best out of him too?
Fans complained about seeing the celebrated poacher, a two-time title winner with Manchester United and a FIFA World Club Cup winner with Real Madrid, played out of position.
Bilic (left) will leave with a few quid in his back pocket, having been sacked in the final year of a contract that was never going to be extended. The end for him can’t
come soon enough.