West Ham have done the inevitable and sacked manager Manuel Pellegrini after an abysmal performance against Leicester City. With the big decision made, another follows; what now for the Hammers?
There was no choice but to sack Manuel Pellegrini after that embarrassingly directionless loss to the Leicester City B-team. The players looked disorganized and the performance reflected this with the Foxes bench players running rampant at the London Stadium. This loss was the straw that broke the camel’s back, as the decision was building for some time.
By all accounts, Pellegrini is a top man and true professional and gentleman. The issues with him as manager, however, are his lack of preparedness for the opposition, unwillingness to change or compromise on his ideas, lack of emotion, and awful game management. He has a remarkable CV, but he wasn’t up for managing a team like West Ham, where ambition isn’t always matched with investment.
His initial hire checked the box of a Premier League proven manager who had actually won the league before. His Manchester City days saw him role out impressive teams that played hard and attractive football, scoring their way to a Premier League title. Unfortunately, his big-money move to China seemed to have sucked him of his ambition to actually manage a team and he inevitably failed.
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With the sacking official, the big question becomes who will replace Pellegrini as West Ham’s manager? The names getting the most attention, David Moyes and Tony Pulis, are not necessarily going over well on social media.
Tony Pulis seems like an interim idea for the club. He’s out of work, thus would be free, and needs to reassert himself after his Middlesbrough sacking. If the plan was to appoint Pulis, avoid relegation, and sign Eddie Howe or Sean Dyche in the summer it would be more palatable, but nothing is guaranteed, including safety (especially) under a manager would couldn’t get it done at the Championship level.
This leads us to David Moyes – the prodigal manager. Wisely, Moyes is apparently holding out for a long-term contract in order to return as the Hammers gaffer. He did a solid job of avoiding relegation after he replaced Slaven Bilic in the 2017/18 season but was immediately overlooked for Pellegrini. He would inspire a more fit team than Pellegrini and would also likely prioritize English signings so I suppose it could be worse (see previous paragraph).
Whoever takes of the job will have an uphill battle on their hands. Luckily, the squad has some very talented players like Declan Rice, Felipe Anderson, and Sebastien Haller amongst others, who can carry the team if put in a position to succeed. Don’t overlook current staff coach Enzo Maresca to act as a caretaker manager either!