'Clock is ticking' on West Ham United manager Manuel Pellegrini who may have to beat Southampton to save job
Manuel Pellegrini is running out of time to save his job as West Ham manager, with the club considering sacking him if he loses to Southampton this weekend.
Senior club sources have been alarmed for weeks at West Ham’s collapse in form and results and now fear that the recent 1-0 away win at Chelsea was a freak result rather than a corner being turned.
West Ham are considering their options should they have to sack Pellegrini who appears to remain in denial at the club’s plight and his responsibility for it. West Ham have spent heavily in signing players since his arrival.
Defeat to Southampton could see West Ham drop into the bottom three and the club cannot contemplate the possibility of relegation. It will have irritated the hierarchy that Pellegrini insisted following the appalling 3-1 home defeat to Arsenal on Monday that he was not worried about the possibility of being relegated.
After the game at St Mary’s there is a 12-day gap before West Ham play again, in the Boxing Day fixture away to Crystal Palace, because Liverpool – who would be their next opponents – are in Qatar for the Club World Cup.
It would give West Ham an opportunity to make a change, especially before the January transfer window opens with signing a goalkeeper a priority for the club.
There is still a reluctance to dismiss Pellegrini partly because West Ham prefer to assess the future of the manager at the end of each campaign but the pressure is beginning to become intolerable. Although the Chilean is the highest-paid manager in West Ham’s history the club are prepared to pay his compensation to dismiss him if it comes to that.
West Ham like Sean Dyche but know it would be extremely difficult to get him out of Burnley during a season and it is understood to also be an expensive exercise. The likelihood is they would turn to a British or Irish manager who is readily available until the end of the season and there is regret from some at the club that they let David Moyes leave in the first place.
Moyes is still out of work after the end of his short-term deal at West Ham in 2018, but whether he would want to make a return to remains to be seen. Former Brighton manager Chris Hughton would also come under consideration but would not be among the favourites to succeed Pellegrini.
In fact the lack of a readily-available and viable alternative may be buying Pellegrini more time although the capitulation to Arsenal – the manner of the three goals conceded in nine minutes, the poor defending and the lack of a response means, according to a senior source that “the clock is ticking.”
