West Ham United have sacked manager Manuel Pellegrini with immediate effect, the club have announced. The decision comes after a 2-1 defeat at home to Leicester City this afternoon.
The Hammers have been struggling for a while and in December, they’ve picked up just one win in five games – form that sees them sat 17th in the league, one place and one point above the relegation zone.
Today, as mentioned above, West Ham hosted Leicester City in a crunch Premier League game. The Foxes have suffered two straight defeats at the hands of Manchester City and Liverpool and today, manager Brendan Rodgers made nine changes to his lineup. Despite that, West Ham couldn’t pick up any points and thus racked up their fourth straight home defeat.
As a result of that form, Pellegrini’s job has been on the line for some time. There was speculation around his future back in November, but a big win away at Chelsea seemed to give Pellegrini a stay of execution. Their form over the Christmas period though was not to be ignored, and the club eventually decided to pull the trigger this evening.
On yer bike Pellegrini
Hammers co-chairman David Sullivan, spoke on the matter this evening.
“It is with great disappointment that we’ve had to make this decision,” said Sullivan. “Manuel is a gentleman and it has been a real pleasure to work with someone of his calibre. However, it has become clear that that a change is required to get the Club back on track in line with our ambitions this season. We felt it was necessary to act now in order to give the new manager as much time as possible to try and achieve that goal.”
The new manager, whoever it may be, will be the fourth manager through the door since West Ham made their move to the London Stadium. Currently, the favourite for the role is former manager David Moyes. According to oddschecker.com, Moyes is 1/4 to be the next manager.
Strangely, another of their former managers in Harry Redknapp is the second favourite to replace Pellegrini. Coming in at 10/1, it seems unlikely that the coach-turned-cake-loving-reality star will come out of what seems a cushy retirement to take on something of a tough managerial gig. It seems equally as unlikely he’ll be offered the chance to.
According to various tabloid reports, Moyes will only take the job if he is offered it on a permanent basis. If West Ham make that mistake for a second time in three years, it’ll be their own fault when they end up getting relegated. For me, they need to break the bank to bring in somebody like Rafael Benitez, who is currently alongside Redknapp at 10/1 for the job.
As a Geordie, it will pain me to see Rafa managing another Premier League club, but it’s the perfect appointment for the Irons. They have been linked to him a few times in the past, and the man himself didn’t exactly close the door on a return to English football when asked on MNF a few weeks back.
For now though, it looks as though Manuel Pellegrini is done in English football and West Ham United are on the hunt for a new manager. Let me know in the comments who you think should the replacement.
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