West Ham United Fan View: Why Slaven Bilic deserves more time

Once again, West Ham fans left the London Stadium angered at the team’s performance. This is a sight that has been far too familiar this season and although Kasper Schmeichel did make amazing saves in the game, once again we were just not good enough. Following that defeat, West Ham are now five games without a win in the Premier League and Slaven Bilic’s job has been questioned. Some fans want Bilic sacked but here are three reasons why it should not be right now…

Our current position

We currently sit 12th in the Premier League with 33 points and although it did look like it earlier in the season, we are probably not going to get relegated. We are only 7 points away from the ‘magic 40 points’ in the Premier League and with nine games to go, it’s difficult to see us not achieving that.

Given that we are not going to be in a relegation battle and we are not fighting for any European spots, making a rash decision and sacking Bilic right now would be of little help. Yes, results may improve but we will simply be taking the risk of de-stabilising the club without achieving anything significant.

Time to find the right manager

Whenever a club sacks their manager mid-season the options available are always limited and this means that the right manager may not be the one that comes in. We do not have to take this risk by sacking Bilic right now and waiting until the season has ended is the best option. This will allow the club to have more time to decide who is the right man for the club.

In terms of options, Roberto Mancini is a name that has often been said when discussing who could replace Bilic and he is available right now given that he does not manage anyone. But what we cannot do should Bilic get sacked is delay in choosing our next manager. He needs time to have a full pre-season, assess the squad and identify targets to ensure that we are ready for next season.

Time to turn it around

Let’s not forget Bilic’s first season. We were playing exciting, attacking football and we challenged for the Champions League spots though we did ultimately fail near the end. None of us expected to achieve what we did in Bilic’s debut season and repeating that was always going to be difficult. The move to the new stadium has certainly not helped Bilic this season and the departure of Dimitri Payet only made it harder on the team.

But let’s also not forget that there are nine games left in the season and Bilic still has time to prove that he is the right man to lead the club forward. It appears that he has the backing of the players and in the remaining games we not only need to get wins, but also get back to the exciting style of play that we showed last season. We did have a dreadful run earlier on in the season and Bilic did bring it back. Who’s to say that he cannot do it again and stay on as manager of West Ham United?