Why Slaven Bilic deserves more time at ruffled West Ham

Last Saturday's 0-0 draw between Stoke City and West Ham United was a needling affair. For the host, it was a blatant case of a club having an eye on all-inclusive summer holidays, but for the Irons it appeared a fear of being beaten resulted in a rank lack of adventure.

Slaven Bilic, the man who's overseen West Ham over an ultimately disappointing 2016-17 conquest, looks beaten. One of the only constants during a period of upheaval at the capital outfit is the Croatian in the technical area, but with each passing week the manager looks further weathered by life among the unpacked boxes of an uprooted West Ham.

You wouldn't blame him for anticipating a poolside excursion of his own. But it may get worse. Whether Bilic is allowed to continue will be decided by performances against title-chasing Tottenham Hotspur on Friday and then Liverpool nine days later, according to the Guardian's David Hynter.

Amid such disturbance, the lack of patience afforded to Bilic - even in the tumultuous setting of the Premier League - is cruel.

Distracted ownership

Last season's pursuit of Champions League football was enthralling. Bilic's throng was punching above its weight for long periods of that term, and the memories stored from those nine months - wins at Arsenal, Liverpool, and Manchester City, and ultimately condemning Manchester United to Europa League football in the final match at Upton Park - were tough to replicate.

What he was dealt afterwards didn't help.

Following protracted and overly ambitious pursuits for Alexandre Lacazette from Lyon and AC Milan's Carlos Bacca, West Ham ended up with Andre Ayew, Simone Zaza, Jonathan Calleri, and Ashley Fletcher in the summer.

Maybe the boardroom members were too keen on supplementing their business acumen and public image than seriously navigating the transfer window for a striker.

Karren Brady was boastful at the Sport Business Summit in October of last year, talking of a successful "rebranding" of the club, and a new stadium that helped instil a culture that was previously non-existent, according to the co-owner. Being as staunchly and proudly cockney as jellied eels in its previous abode of the Boleyn Ground is the very definition of identity, and the indistinguishable Premier League grounds cropping up on the outskirts of cities or in the business parks of towns are sterile. If anything, West Ham's identity had been sacrificed at the cost of potential progression.

Elsewhere, fellow co-owners David Gold and David Sullivan, profiteers from the soft porn industry, are more than willing to offer soundbites. The son of the latter, perhaps the West Ham chief who's most fond of his broadcasted voice, even takes it upon himself to break club news on his Twitter feed.

A shiny new stadium doesn't immediately lift West Ham to the European elite, but the arrogance from those above Bilic suggested a belief the club had arrived as world football's creme de la creme after merely moving into that cavernous venue.

Injuries and Payet's tantrum

In mid-August, Ayew lasted 35 minutes of his debut before leaving the meeting with Chelsea with a thigh injury which required surgery. Arthur Masuaku, Andy Carroll, Angelo Ogbonna, Diafra Sakho, and Alvaro Arbeloa have all been sidelined for significant periods, and recent injuries to Michail Antonio and Pedro Obiang will see them out of commission until next season.

The enforced changes to Bilic's squad means 23 different players have made 10 or more appearances in the Premier League - seven more than Friday's opponent, Tottenham - which has made it difficult for the gaffer to instil any discernible philosophy at West Ham.

In addition to the injuries, Bilic had to deal with the cataclysmic effect of having his best player demanding to leave.

Dimitri Payet, a man who scored or assisted over a third of the goals in the 2015-16 league matches that he featured in, threw the toys out of his pram in spectacular fashion. The way he was apparently excluded by his colleagues and demoted to youth-team training made his untidy return to Marseille inevitable.

There were parallels with how ex-defender Bilic engineered his transfer from West Ham to Everton in 1997 (and there is some poetic justice to that), but losing Payet was as critical as if Gylfi Sigurdsson tunnelled out of Swansea City, or if Arsenal was stripped of Alexis Sanchez. The Frenchman's exit meant the West Ham artillery had lost its gunpowder.

Aside from the failed experiment of shunting West Ham's best player, Antonio, to right-back, there's been no clear evidence that Bilic is unable to field a competent XI when he has the players available. The ever-changing formations and inventive ways he found to deploy Ivan Rakitic, Luka Modric, and Niko Kranjcar all at once when in charge of Croatia suggest he's a man who can adequately explain individual instructions, and is reactive when it comes to countering opponents.

If Tottenham's visit represents half of Bilic's opportunity to prove his work to West Ham's brass, it's incredibly harsh. Not only is Mauricio Pochettino's side purring right now, over this season the Hammers' boss has been tasked with building an imperious castle with ice lolly sticks on foundations of sand.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)