West Ham prepared to change their manager with Slaven Bilic set for crunch talks

Slaven Bilic is set to learn his fate as West Ham boss in the next 48 hours with the club now prepared to make managerial changes in order to save their season.

Bilic is expected to meet with club owners on Monday after Saturday’s thumping 4-1 defeat to Liverpool left the Hammers just one point above the relegation zone as they head into the international break.

Co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold have been reluctant to part company with their manager mid-season, but that stance is understood to have changed with the team having gone four top flight matches without a win.

The board had effectively given Bilic two games to save his job after the 3-0 defeat at home to Brighton, which was followed up with a League Cup win at Tottenham and a 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace – a game which the Hammers should have won.

But the manner of their defeat to Liverpool has left Bilic’s job in serious jeopardy. And he, it seems, knows it too.

Bilic admitted on Saturday that he was prepared to ‘take the bullets’ for their poor run of form, and it is increasingly likely that he will do so.

Asked whether he would be given time to turn West Ham’s season around, Bilic hardly seemed optimistic.

“I don't know,” he told reporters. “There are two situations. One, of course I believe in myself, my staff and my team and my character, I have had a long time in football. I came so far from a small country first as a player and then a manager. I am big fighter and all that.

“I never like to talk about myself like ‘I’m that, I’m that, I’m that’ I never do it I know my values and if I am anything I am a strong man and I am a big believer in myself and I never, and I am the one who is taking the bullets all the time when I have to and when I don’t have to so that is out of the question, how strong a character I am.”

David Moyes has been suggested as a possible successor, with bookmakers Betfair pricing his appointment at 4/11 on Saturday night. Elsewhere, Newcastle United boss Rafa Benitez and former Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini have also been linked.

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