Why Slaven Bilic should remain as West Ham manager next season

West Ham picked up a third successive Premier League draw following a stalemate away at Stoke City on Saturday.

The Hammers have slowly but surely edged away from the bottom three in recent weeks thanks to a win over Swansea and draws against Sunderland and Everton, and they remain seven points clear of the drop after their goalless draw at the bet365 Stadium last weekend.

It means that Slaven Bilic’s men are 15th in the table, and needing just one more victory to guarantee their Premier League status for next season.

But whether the Croat will be in charge very much remains to be seen following recent reports that his side need to produce good performances in the coming home games against first Tottenham on Friday and then Liverpool next weekend to keep the 48-year-old in the job.

The Hammers have struggled at their new stadium this term following the move from Upton Park last summer, with Bilic’s men only winning six of their 17 Premier League games there, five of which have been by a 1-0 scoreline.

And with the East London outfit failing to get close to replicating their seventh place finish last term, pressure is building on Bilic to finish the season on a high, otherwise the West Ham hierarchy may be thinking about bringing someone else in ahead of next season.

However, Bilic has earned the opportunity to enter the final year of his contract given how well his side performed last season, and how much disruption and difficulty has come with this campaign.

Bilic’s first season as Hammers boss was met with much anticipation given his affinity with the club and previous managerial success with Croatia and Besiktas, and he lived up to expectation by helping the team record their best Premier League finish since 2002.

The East London outfit won 16 of their 38 league matches to finish seventh in the table, and end up only a point adrift of sixth place Southampton, and just four points off Manchester City in the final Champions League place.

The Hammers were outstanding last season, with Dimitri Payet their standout performer with 12 goals in 38 appearances in all competitions, while the likes of Michail Antonio, Mark Noble, Diafra Sakho, and Andy Carroll all made telling contributions.

And, regardless of what anyone says, it was always going to be nigh on impossible to replicate that this season, mainly because the other top sides in the country got significantly better over the summer, with City bringing in Pep Guardiola, tenth place Chelsea appointing Antonio Conte, and Manchester United opting to bring Jose Mourinho to Old Trafford.

But it has also been a complicated time at West Ham this term, what with the club moving to a new stadium, the sale of Payet in January, and the countless injuries they have had to first teamers over the course of the campaign.

Clearly, the move to the London Stadium has been tricky for the Hammers given that they have won just six of their 17 league games there, and arguably haven’t got any closer to calling it ‘home’ than when they played their first match there back in July of last year.

Several of those West Ham players, such as Noble, Carroll, and Winston Reid to name but a few, would be used to Upton Park and what went with it, with it often a hostile atmosphere and one that away teams knew would be a tricky test to negotiate – it was always a difficult place to go and win.

That cannot be said of the London Stadium which, as has been well documented, isn’t as close to the pitch and as intimidating as Upton Park, and that will take some getting used to for both players and fans, hence their struggles throughout the campaign.

Admittedly, some of their performances there this term have been unacceptable, the 5-1 defeat to Arsenal in particular, but the season as a whole needs placing into some context, and Payet’s departure in January adds to that.

Bilic confirmed at the start of 2017 that the France international didn’t want to play for the club anymore, and you sense that his frustration with some things around West Ham also had an impact on the rest of the squad, as following his expulsion from the squad, Bilic’s men beat Crystal Palace 3-0, and then beat Middlesbrough and Southampton in subsequent weeks.

The Hammers boss has been praised for how well he dealt with the Payet saga, but it cannot be understated how much of a loss the Frenchman’s sale was, given how integral he was the season before, and the flashes of brilliance he showed in the early phase of this term as well – he was West Ham’s best player by quite a margin.

All of this must be taken into account.

Bilic and West Ham overachieved last season to finish seventh – Leicester’s triumph and the season as a whole raised unrealistic expectations throughout the top-flight.

Arguably, where they are now is a more accurate indication of the level they are at, and when you factor in the stadium move, the Payet saga, and the endless injury-list, the Croat deserves great credit in what has been a testing season, and thus deserves to stay in charge of West Ham next term.