West Ham: Manuel Pellegrini says his team 'must improve'
West Ham have reportedly readied three managers in case they decide to sack Manuel Pellegrini. The under-fire boss faces a must-win clash at Southampton and failure to bring three points back to east London could prove costly for the Chilean.
There was hope among board members that the Hammers 1-0 win at Chelsea two weeks ago would prove to be a turning point in the club’s season.
However they failed to back up the best result of their campaign with a positive performance against Arsenal, suffering a 3-1 defeat at home to Freddie Ljungberg’s Gunners on Monday.
Now according to The Telegraph, the West Ham hierarchy are already putting together plans for Pellegrini’s replacement.
David Moyes is one of the names in contention, but Everton’s sacking of Marco Silva has complicated matters.
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Kevin Keen, the club’s academy boss, could also take charge while the board sound out a long-term successor to Pellegrini.
Beyond those potential three short-term appointments, West Ham also have eyes on three other Premier League bosses.
Sean Dyche, Chris Wilder and Eddie Howe have all caught the club’s eye but West Ham know it would be difficult to prise them away in the middle of the season.
Surprisingly, Harry Redknapp would be open to stepping in to help out his former club.
West Ham could sack Manuel Pellegrini after a worrying run of results (Image: GETTY)
Pellegrini admitted that failure to win on the South Coast could cost him his job.
“What I really need is to win the game but maybe I'm not in my job on Monday,” he said.
“That's not a problem of the job. The problem is to try to improve what you're doing because we don't have the results and of course for many years in this profession having just five points from this many games [10] is not good enough.”
Pellegrini still has 18 months left on his current West Ham deal which is worth around £8million per year.
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Sacking the former Manchester City boss would cost the club around £13m, which is why the board has been willing to show such patience.
Pellegrini is already aware that the club’s hierarchy have already shown him extra support when others may have swung the axe.
“It's not normal to have five points from 10 games and very bad results,” he said.
“That's why I know that the owner trusts what we are doing because another owner maybe you have been sacked before. We know what football is and we are trying to get results.”