Pellegrini: A victory may not save me from the axe
MANUEL PELLEGRINI conceded yesterday that win or lose against Southampton tomorrow evening and he could be sacked as the manager of West Ham. Speculation over Pellegrini’s future has intensified in recent weeks with the Hammers just a point above the Premier League relegation zone after only one win in 10 matches. Sportsmail reported earlier this week that West Ham’s hierarchy had met to discuss the 66-year-old’s future following a dismal 3-1 defeat by Arsenal at the London Stadium on Monday night. But Pellegrini believes even if his side beat Southampton he could be out of a job come the end of the weekend. He said: ‘What I really need is to win the game but maybe I’m not in my job on Monday. ‘That’s not a problem of the job. The problem is to try to improve what you’re doing because we don’t have the results and of course for many years in this profession having just five points from this many games (10) is not good enough.’ Pellegrini has 18 months left on his £8million-ayear The heat is on: West Ham boss Pellegrini contract at West Ham and sacking him now would cost the club around £13m. The club have stayed patient because of the sizeable pay-off but even Pellegrini admitted he wouldn’t have got as much time at other clubs. He cited Tottenham and Arsenal, who have sacked their managers from the start of the season, adding that had the owners at West Ham been different to David Sullivan and David Gold he may have been let go already. He said: ‘It’s not normal to have five points from 10 games and very bad results. That’s why I know that the owner trusts what we are doing because another owner maybe you have been sacked before. We know what football is and we are trying to get results.’ Asked if he needed a vote of confidence from the board, he said: ‘No, no.’