After the defeats to Crystal Palace and Leicester City over the festive period, Manuel Pellegrini finally lost his job at West Ham United.
The Chilean had been in charge at the London Stadium since the summer of 2018 and had a reasonable first campaign, leading the Hammers to 10th in the table.
There was a sense of optimism in the summer going into the 2019/20 campaign, as there usually is at West Ham, but particularly after the club record £45m signing of striker Sebastien Haller from Eintracht Frankfurt.
Pellegrini, who won the Premier League title while at Manchester City, has led the club to just five wins so far this season and they are lingering around the relegation zone looking like a team that is in freefall.
The axe has finally fell on the 66-year old in the coming days, but where will the West Ham board go next?
We’ve taken a look at three of the favourites for the job….
DAVID MOYES
The club turned to the former Manchester United manager two years to get the club out of the mess left by Slaven Bilic.
Moyes joined West Ham with the team languishing in the relegation zone but performed admirably during his six months in charge, leading them to 13th in the Premier League table.
The Glaswegian is favourite with the majority of bookmakers to get the nod again, especially after missing out on a return to Goodison Park to manage Everton again, who went for Carlo Ancelotti instead.
There was a case of damage restoration from Moyes’ time at West Ham and theres no reason the announcement of his appointment wouldn’t be welcomed by supporters.
RAFAEL BENITEZ
Benitez appeared to be fluttering his eyelashes at Everton when he appeared on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football a couple of weeks ago.
What was evident was that the Spaniard would be keen on returning to club management in England at some point in the future.
The former Newcastle United manager is currently on a mega million-pound deal in the Chinese Super League, managing Dalian Yifang.
But Benitez and West Ham have nearly been in partnership before, with there reportedly being an agreement between the two in 2015.
Real Madrid then expressed an interest in the 59-year old, which proved to be too much of an opportunity to turn down.
Maybe now is the right time for the Champions League winning manager to take on the West Ham United hotseat.
EDDIE HOWE
The internet is crying ‘fraud’ at Eddie Howe after AFC Bournemouth’s recent downturn in form which has left the Cherries in a similar crisis to West Ham.
However, the internet, as we know is a fickle place with a short memory.
Howe has led a club that was minutes from going out of business from the foot of League Two to the Premier League, but the criticism comes from the money he has spent since residing in the top flight.
It has long been expected that Howe would move on to a bigger job at some point in his career.
Would the London Stadium represent that opportunity?
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