West Ham United could end the season with another manager following reports that Manuel Pellegrini has been given just two games to save his job.
The Hammers have had three managers since 2015, with David Moyes taking charge on an interim basis when Slaven Bilic was fired with the club in the relegation zone in November 2017.
The Croatian helped West Ham to a seventh-place finish in the Premier League table in his first season before things went south.
However, Bilic might have never gotten the job if the club’s board had their way.
According to The Athletic’s Phil Hay, West Ham wanted current Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa ahead of him, and courted the Argentine directly.
He was in the middle of discussions about a contract extension with Marseille at the time, and there were aspects about West Ham’s ownership that concerned him.
Given what he has heard and knows about David Sullivan and David Gold, Bielsa wasn’t particularly pleased to work with them, and the club went after Bilic, despite earlier links with the likes of David Moyes, Jurgen Klopp, Unai Emery and Rafael Benitez.
Bilic led West Ham to 11th place at the end of his second season, but his records in his debut campaign remain enviable, and not even Pellegrini has been able to get close.
The Hammers picked up their highest number of points (62), their highest number of goals in a season (65), a positive goal difference for the first time in the Premier League (+14), the fewest games lost in a season (eight) and the fewest away defeats (five).
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