Where in this Season it all went Wrong for West Ham United

As West Ham United fights for their Premiere League life, this is why and where the season went horribly wrong. And it’s not what you might think.

All of the emotions and histrionics aside, the reason the club is in the relegation fight of their lives because David Sullivan and David Gold stuck with Manuel Pellegrini as the manager for way too long. Now the supporters have to hope the move to David Moyes wasn’t too little and too late.

The two worst things to happen to West Ham United this season (so far) were both looked at as a bright spots when they occurred: A 2-0 victory over Manchester United on September 22 and a 1-0 victory over Chelsea on November 30th.

Immediately after that Man Utd match, the Hammers got rolled in the League Cup 4-0 to Oxford United and then followed up that disaster with a run of 7 games without a win. In this stretch they managed just two points out of a possible 21. It was clearly time to pull the plug on Manuel Pellegrini in an attempt to save the season.

But then came the 1-0 win over Chelsea.  After that, the board sat by and watched and did nothing as the club let precious points slip away again hoping that their big name manager would find a way to right things.  The club responded to their win in the Derby by managing exactly zero points in five games from a possible 15 available.

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By the time the season reached that critical Match Week 20, Gold and Sullivan apparently had seen enough. Or if reports are to be believed, it cost them less to fire Pellegrini after Christmas.  Neither is a good look or reason.  But that’s when it happened.

The Man Utd victory early on, as the Hammers were sitting pretty in 5th spot on 11 points, seemed to confirm the thought of the board, manager, and supporters that this was a club that would challenge for European football.   So over the next 19 matches, the club managed to scrape up just 12 more points. Let that sink in. 12 points since September!

For the greatest stretch of that time, the Board sat by unwilling to make a critical change to help the club wrestle itself free of their bad run of form. Either because they couldn’t or didn’t want to afford to sack him.

Maybe it was their arrogance that refused to allow them to admit a mistake in hiring Pellegrini (or Firing David Moyes the first time around) in the first place.  Or the relative lack of football acumen amongst them meant they didn’t comprehend or believe what they were seeing play out on the pitch.  Most likely some of all of those ingredients went into it this decision to stick with Pellegrini far too long.

Hopefully, it doesn’t turn out to be a fatal mistake, resulting in West Ham’s relegation for the first time in a decade. If it does, Sullivan and Gold have nobody to blame but themselves for once again proving without a doubt to anyone paying the least bit of attention that they do not have a plan for any aspect of this club.

And with a tough run of fixtures ahead, it would be most helpful if West Ham could pull a very West Ham Way like victory where its least expected much like they did earlier this season to earn points and save themselves. Even in spite of the poor leadership of Gold & Sullivan.