IRONS AXE LOOMING FOR AILING BILIC
SWANSEA could prove to be poor Slaven Bilic’s swansong tomorrow.
It’s easy to pity the likeable Croatian, but hard to have sympathy for West Ham’s hierarchy.
Since moving to the London Stadium, it’s been more a case of bursting bubbles rather than blowing them.
Let’s cut to the chase, the former Olympic centrepiece is not a football stadium – never has been and never will be.
What it is for the club is a cash cow, capable of bringing in so much more dosh because of its 66,000 capacity rather than the 35,000 that could be packed into the atmospheric and intimidating Boleyn Ground.
The consequence of moving the four miles from E13 to E20 has been catastrophic. The Irons have lost their mettle, the heart and soul has gone from the club.
Going to the game against Spurs last Saturday and walking from Stratford, the thought occurred there was something almost post-apocalyptic about the journey along the shut-off road.
The stroll wasn’t helped when I took my bag to be sniffed by an explosive detector dog and I gave a customary smile at the handler, who then snarled back in true canine fashion. That walk to the stadium is charmless, the ground itself uninspiring and one can only guess how awful the view is from some of the seats at the back. It is against this backdrop that Bilic is fighting to keep the Hammers in the top flight. Last season they scored just 19 goals at home in the Premier League. In their last one at Upton Park they bagged 34 as they finished seventh. A loss at ‘home’ to Swansea tomorrow, coupled with Bournemouth getting at least a point against Leicester, will see the Hammers in the bottom two and Bilic’s odds of being the next boss to be sacked will shorten. They’re already as low at 5-4. You’d love to know what he really feels about having to play at the Lowdown, sorry London, Stadium. To be fair to the club’s fans, on the evidence of last Saturday they are trying to raise their own game as they bid to get used to the appalling lack of intimacy. But it’s hard to imagine any team ever again having even the slightest trepidation about playing West Ham away.