NEIL FISSLER: West Ham must end Slaven Bilic misery, Joshua vs Takam no super fight

The Hammers manager has been a dead man walking since last season when it was made clear that he wouldn’t be getting a new deal.

But they swerved getting rid of him because it would appear that they wanted to save themselves a few quid by not paying off him and his coaching staff.

Instead he was backed and allowed to strengthen the squad with the club spending over £100,000 a week in wages bringing in Joe Hart and Javier Hernandez.

Then after losing the opening three games this season his position was being reviewed by the club but ultimately he was given the chance to turn things around.  

Co-owner David Sullivan appeared on television before Friday night’s shambolic defeat against Brighton to proclaim Bilic was safe until the end of the season.

On Saturday however in what has become a costumery occurrence, poor old Slav was again under review before being given two games to turn things around.

And on Wednesday night West Ham somehow came back from 2-0 down at Spurs to win their Carabao Cup tie. Spurs can be credited with the defeat as much as West Ham the win. Make no mistake, Bilic is clinging on here.

Since moving to the London Stadium for one reason or another West Ham have had more comedy value than the likes of Michael McIntyre and Miranda Hart.

But the joke is starting to wear a little thin and ultimately it could end up costing the club their place in the Premier League all because they wanted to save dough.

So do the decent thing and put poor old Bilic out of his misery because things are unlikely to get any better.

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YOU have to feel sorry for England rugby captain Dylan Hartley after the joke decision to haul him up before a disciplinary committee.

Hartley, who is no stranger to these hearings, was called before the beak for allegedly striking Clermont Auvergne prop, Rabah Slimani, over the weekend.

He was yellow carded at the time by the referee but the citing commission wanted to get busy deciding that the incident needed further investigation.

He was cleared on Wednesday.

It was as clear as day from the television pictures that Hartley had done nothing wrong and didn’t have a case to answer.

And nobody will ever convince me that the decision to charge Hartley, who has been banned for a total of 60 weeks, was done on reputation alone and nothing else.

Especially as Slimani was allowed to escape without any sanction for a forearm smash on Hartley which if the only way around would have led to a lengthy suspension.

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ANTHONY JOSHUA will make the latest defence of his world heavyweight titles in Cardiff on Saturday against replacement opponent Frenchmen Carlos Takam.

Takam was called in last week after Kubrat Pulev got injured but you will only be able to watch it on television if you pay £20.

It’s the latest offering in what’s become an obsession in boxing with pay-per-view television which is an idea that has been flirted with in this country on and off for years.

And it will be the sixth pay-per-view boxing event shown in Britain since the Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather circus at the end of August.

I have no objection to paying extra to watch a super fight because they simply don’t get made any other way.

But Joshua against Takam isn’t a super fight it’s a routine defence and to be honest Sky are taking a liberty wanting extra money to see it.