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Slaven Bilic looks set to be fired by West Brom on Wednesday, despite his team fighting for a precious point at Manchester City.
Albion secured a 1-1 draw at the Etihad on Tuesday, but speculation swirled in the stadium that the 52-year-old was ready for crucial talks at the Hawthorns.
Bilic will be the first managerial casualty of the Premier League campaign as the Baggies look to inject some life into their bid for top flight survival.
Nigel Pearson and Sam Allardyce are already being touted as his successor and Albion is unlikely to pay compensation for a replacement for Bilic. The former Croatia coach was out of contract at the end of the season and, although his team will be encouraged by Tuesday night’s draw at City, there have been reservations about the style of play and the results.
Asked about the speculation at the Etihad Stadium, Bilic said: “I am very calm. I love my job. I am here and calm. To be fair, it doesn’t bother me. I’m doing my work. I am enjoying it. I work hard for myself, for my squad, for the players, for the club, that’s all. Everything else is out of my control.
“But to be fair, I’m doing the best I can. I don’t think of other things. It doesn’t really bother me what’s going on behind the scenes and all that, I don’t care. “
When asked if the result showed that West Brom was still playing for him, Bilic said: “I don’t like that cliché.
“The players are playing for themselves, but they are listening to our game plan and it’s really good to see their players fight like this. We’re having this kind of environment, this work environment, all season long and it didn’t go down. Sometimes you win games, sometimes you lose them, sometimes you play better and sometimes worse, but we never had attitude problems ”.
Bilic’s relationship with West Brom’s board of directors has been on the rise since promotion to the Premier League and reached a new low in October when Albion sold Ahmed Hegazi.
The manager responded to the deal, suggesting that the club had broken its promises to the Egyptian defender, as he was allowed to join Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ittihad on a £ 4 million deal just 24 hours before his trip to Brighton.
At the time, Bilic said: “I am very disappointed with Hegazi’s departure because they assured me this week that he would stay … he was destined to play today, he is a great professional, he had to wait for his opportunity but because of his knowing how.
“I was counting on him in a big way, basically losing him on Sunday morning, discovering him yesterday morning, I am very disappointed.
“It was definitely not my decision, it was not a football decision, I am very disappointed that we are a team that needs all our good players.”
