Manuel Pellegrini has been sacked as manager of West Ham after their 2-1 defeat by Leicester. The club’s announcement comes as little surprise given the pressure that has been building on the Chilean amid a run of two wins in all competitions since late September.
A club statement said: “West Ham United can confirm that Manuel Pellegrini has left the Club with immediate effect. Joint-Chairmen David Sullivan and David Gold, along with the Board and everyone at West Ham United, would like to place on record their thanks to Manuel for his service over the past 18 months.
“Mr Sullivan said: ‘It is with great disappointment that we’ve had to make this decision. Manuel is a gentleman and it has been a real pleasure to work with someone of his calibre.
“‘However, it has become clear that that a change is required to get the Club back on track in line with our ambitions this season. We felt it was necessary to act now in order to give the new manager as much time as possible to try and achieve that goal.’”
West Ham have begun the process of identifying replacements, with David Moyes, Chris Hughton and Bournemouth’s Eddie Howe among those who could be approached.
Pellegrini was appointed in May 2018 as a replacement for Moyes and guided West Ham to 10th in his first season in charge. Under Pellegrini, who won the title with Manchester City in 2014, West Ham began this season in encouraging fashion and found themselves 5th after a 2-0 victory over Manchester United in late September. In their next game, however, they suffered a shock 4-0 defeat to Oxford United in the Carabao Cup and their form slumped from there.
Pellegrini’s case was not helped by some poor individual performances, most notably from the goalkeeper Roberto who was calamitous after coming in for the injured Lukasz Fabianski before being replaced by David Martin.