West Ham Board Have No Confidence in Bilic and Should Stop Pretending They Won't Soon Sack Him

The West Ham board have made as big a mess of handling Slaven Bilic's position as manager as his team have trying to play football this season.

The powers that be at the London Stadium, including David Gold, David Sullivan and Karren Brady, saw their side fall to yet another defeat on Friday, as Brighton cruised to a 3-0 win.

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The result leaves the Hammers languishing in 16th place in the Premier League on eight points - which is the same amount as Stoke and Everton, who have just fired Ronald Koeman.

The day after the crushing defeat to the Seagulls saw Bilic's position as boss placed 'under review', and it can be argued that there were a few things not right about the decision to do this.

Why the board chose to make a public announcement of this is very odd - surely such news ought to be kept as far away from all the news outlets as possible. What good possibly comes from announcing that basically, you're debating sacking the manager but you're just not quite sure?

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If you're considering making a huge decision, don't tell people that you're doing so, come out and say what decision has been made and have some conviction about the delivery. By stalling, and by allowing everyone in on your deliberations, you show indecisiveness and weak leadership - what kind of example from the very top is that to set? No wonder the team are performing poorly on the pitch.

Then we get to the actual decision itself - deciding to stick with Bilic. Is anyone buying that the Irons' hierarchy have faith in the Croatian to take them where they ultimately want to be? It looks very much like the club are stalling over his inevitable sacking whilst they identify his replacement, which is both bizarre and disrespectful.

David Sullivan had talked before the Brighton defeat about feeling 'morally wrong' when it comes to sacking managers, which is not exactly a vote of confidence in the man currently at the helm. 

He didn't say anything to suggest that Bilic will be sticking around for much longer, but then, one always gets the feeling with West Ham that they are only ever around five or six poor results away from giving him the boot.

Earlier in the season, Sullivan threw Bilic under the bus by informing fans that he had rejected the chance to sign one of Grzegorz Krychowiak or Renato Sanches after they were offered to him during the transfer window - if you were happy with your manager in charge you would not have made such information public.

Last month, via the Mail, Bilic himself spoke of how he has 'felt the pressure for a year' as West Ham manager, which is further suggestion that the board simply do not have the confidence in him.

You just get the feeling that publicly placing Bilic 'under review' was a clear sign the board are ready to wield the axe - they just don't have the precise candidate lined up yet. Don't pretend like you still want the man in charge because your dubious actions state otherwise.