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Slaven Bilic was appointed West Brom manager in June 2019
West Brom manager Slaven Bilic has been sacked after 18 months in office, and the club is ranked 19th in the Premier League.
The Baggies have accumulated seven points from 13 league games, with eight losses, although they earned a surprise 1-1 draw at Manchester City on Tuesday.
Assistant coaches Dean Racunica and Danilo Butorovic also depart, as is first team coach Julian Dicks.
A statement from the club thanked Bilic and his coaching staff “for their efforts to achieve promotion last season.”
Bilic, 52, signed a two-year deal when he took office at The Hawthorns in June 2019, replacing Darren Moore.
He guided Albion to promotion on the final day of last season as they finished second in the Championship.
But they have only won one Premier League game this season, beating bottom line Sheffield United 1-0 on November 28.
Following the draw at Manchester City, it emerged that West Brom was considering whether to fire Bilic.
Tuesday’s game was the 100th Croatian Premier League game as coach. He led West Ham from June 2015 to November 2017, leading the club to Europe when they finished seventh in their final full season, posting their highest position since 2002.
Before that, he had led Croatia to two European Championships, with a quarter-final appearance in 2008 after eliminating England in the playoffs.
He has also been in charge of Hajduk Split, Lokomotiv Moscow, Besiktas and Al-Ittihad.
Bilic’s management record at club level (all competitions) ClubPlayedWinDrawnLostWin ratioHajduk Split (2001-02) 17114265% Lokomotiv Moscow (2012-13) 321371241% Besiktas (2013-2015) 9248222252% West Ham (2015-17) 11142303938% Al-Ittihad (2018-19) 1735 918% West Brom (2019-20) 6526 221 740%
Sam Allardyce, Nigel Pearson, Mark Hughes and Eddie Howe are all external link candidates to replace Bilic.
Allardyce has been out of work since leaving Everton in the summer of 2018, while Hughes left Southampton later that year.
Pearson, who is a former Albion interim manager, had a 20-game stint at Watford last season, while Howe left Bournemouth in August after his team was relegated from the Premier League.
Analysis
Simon Stone from BBC Sport
Although West Brom was promoted back to the Premier League in Slaven Bilic’s only full season in charge, the uncertainty surrounding the manager was sparked by a streak of three wins in 11 games, which began in late February, just before the closing.
That uncertainty increased during the closed season, when player recruitment issues arose, and again when the sale of defender Ahmed Hegazi was sanctioned by the club’s board in October, with the coach explicitly saying he did not want the player to leave.
With the results being poor, a decision was made after Saturday’s defeat at Newcastle, so the draw at Manchester City had no impact on the situation.
Bilic and his staff were informed of the news early Wednesday in a face-to-face meeting. It is understood that the discussion was friendly but after adding seven points from 13 games, the club was not confident that the situation could be reversed in the short term to allow them to preserve their Premier League status.
The club finds the way in which the news leaked Tuesday night regrettable; it was not the way it was intended to communicate.
Source: bbc.com
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