There is literally no reason for West Ham not to sack Manuel Pellegrini now

With pressure mounting on manager Manuel Pellegrini and a cruel stack of fixtures waiting for West Ham after the international break, there is literally no reason to not sack Pellegrini now.

I fully understand that they won’t, however, a man can dream, can’t he? Realistically, West Ham and the Premier League requires adaptive football that heavily focuses on the transition game rather than a one-dimensional approach. Manuel Pellegrini has shown his unwillingness to incorporate new ideas and his stubbornness to stick to a broken system which should be enough cause to cancel his contract.

With the money on the hook, an estimated £5 million for this season and another £5 million for next year, an early sacking doesn’t seem likely. Financially this makes sense, the board needed to give term and money to lure Pellegrini away from his lucrative deal in China and paid him for his CV rather than recent success. It was a good appointment at the time and on paper, but as the board of a Premier League team, you need to step up and bite the bullet to right the ship.

With a two week break for the November international break, West Ham should be sacking Pellegrini and getting his replacement in as soon as possible to take stock of his team and get them working with a new managerial team and ideology.

Many have tabbed Danny and Nicky Cowley, the Cowley brothers, as Manuel Pellegrini’s successors. The brothers are young and exciting footballing minds, bringing a two-pronged, new-age approach to the footballing world. A terrific breakdown of their rise through the ranks can be read here. Described as the “archetypal of the forward-thinking, energetic and ambitious young managers,” West Ham could do a lot worse than these rising stars as their immediate managers.

When appointed to manager Huddersfield Town after their relegation to the Championship last season, the Cowleys (Danny as the main manager) identified stability as their main goal for this season. With this, the focus will become establishing structure and installing a ‘next-man-up’ mentality that will steady the team as a whole rather than have success built on singular players.

Pellegrini, on the other hand, has prioritized the attack at West Ham and has left his backline to defend with only their high-line as the apparent training they use. Shambolic on set pieces, cut apart by deep runs, and picked incorrectly; the defending for the Hammers is as bad or worse than it was with Bilic by the end and is inexcusable.

That being said, the focus on attack has only come monetarily. Sebastien Haller and Pablo Fornals are terrific signings of talented players, but the team is so disjointed they look like they don’t know each other whatsoever. If the drilling isn’t happening on defense and isn’t apparent on offense (and Pellegrini is an “attacking manager”) then what are the board actually paying for?

The reality is that there are better options out there right now to take this team and steady them on a structural level. Eddie Howe has done it at Bournemouth, making the Vitality Stadium a place that teams don’t like traveling to. Sean Dyche has done it with Burnley at Turf Moor. And Chris Wilder has done the same with newly-promoted Sheffield United at Bramall Lane.

All three of these managers are English, well structured, respected by their teams, promote from within their development squads, and prioritize defense before going all-out on attack. Any of these managers would have a squad like West Ham’s and a prospect pool as the Hammers have firing at a different rate, currently. Instead, supporters are stuck watching disgraceful football with the team hamstrung by an overpaid, nothing-to-prove manager.

The board’s appointment of Manuel Pellegrini was made with the best intentions in my eyes. They targetted a manager who has succeeded in Europe, has Premier League experience and has taken non-traditional top-six teams to the top of the table. The resume fits, however, ideology and ambitions do not. The board can show they care about the club and the fans by fixing this well-intentioned mistake and by bringing in a manager who has something to prove, much like this franchise and it’s players do.