West Ham sack Slaven Bilic after two wins from 11 plunge club into relegation zone

West Ham have sacked manager Slaven Bilic after the club were plunged into the relegation zone following defeat to Liverpool.

The Hammers have won just two of their opening 11 Premier League matches and collapsed to a humiliating 4-1 loss to Jurgen Klopp's men on Saturday.

Bilic has overseen a disappointing sequence of results and was given recent matches against Tottenham and Crystal Palace to save his job despite public declarations of support from the West Ham board.

A shock League Cup win over Tottenham at Wembley followed by a dramatic draw at Selhurst Park were deemed sufficient by the club's owners and Bilic clung to his job for the visit of Liverpool.

Co-owner David Sullivan said the manager was "entitled to see out his three-year contract" last month, but the ease with which Liverpool picked apart West Ham prompted a shift in stance.

Speaking after the game, Bilic said he was unsure whether the defeat would spell the end of his two-and-a-half-year stint at West Ham, but declared himself a "big fighter" and not a "broken man".

However, the impassioned speech has not saved the Croatian from the axe and instead marks the end of a tenure of brilliant highs and desperate lows.

A club statement from both David Gold and David Sullivan read: "It is with disappointment and heavy hearts that we have made the decision to relieve Slaven Bilic of his duties as West Ham United manager.

"Since joining the Club in the summer of 2015, Slaven has conducted himself throughout with honesty and integrity, and shown great determination and commitment to the role.

"In his first season - our final campaign at the Boleyn Ground - he led the team to a memorable finish that no Hammers fan will ever forget, and gave us a 3-2 victory against Manchester United in our final home game there that will go down in West Ham United history."

In his first campaign at West Ham, Bilic led the club to wins away at Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal, banking a bonus for finishing seventh on 62 points.

But West Ham's move to the London Stadium coincided with a slump in form which pushed Bilic to the brink. Romanian side Astra Giurgiu ended the Hammers' Europa League adventure prematurely and six defeats from their first seven Premier League games set them up for a disappointing campaign.

The statement continued: "During the summer, the Board invested heavily signing the players Slaven believed would complete the squad he needed to push the Club back towards the level we had reached in his first season, and we believe we have the players capable of doing that.

"Sadly, performances and results have not been of the expected standard and, in recent weeks, we have not seen enough indication of the required improvement to give us the encouragement that things would change and we would meet our Premier League aspirations this season.

"As custodians of the Football Club it is our responsibility as a Board to do what is best for West Ham United, and we believe a change is now necessary to ensure we can begin to move the team back in the right direction."

A record transfer splurge followed in the summer as Bilic attempted to shape a squad capable of challenging in the top half of the Premier League, but the additions have not had the desired impact under the manager's guidance.

The statement concludes: "We see this as an exciting opportunity to appoint a quality manager to the position to inject fresh ideas, organisation and enthusiasm into a very talented squad.

"We would like to thank Slaven for his efforts and wish him all the very best in his future endeavours. He will always be welcome at London Stadium, as a former player and manager who always gave everything for the Club. We would also like to place on record our sincere thanks to the team of coaches that assisted him.

"We will now focus our entire efforts on bringing in the manager we believe can get the best out of the current squad of players and steer the Club towards the top half of the table as quickly as possible."

David Moyes is the bookmakers' frontrunner for the post and speaking on Sunday expressed his interest in taking the job at West Ham.

“I'm interested, yes,” Moyes told Bein Sport on Sunday. “I've had no contact from West Ham but I've always said I want to go back into club management. If the right opportunity comes around I'd be interested.”

Moyes has been out of a job since resigning as Sunderland manager in May following their relegation to from the Premier League. The Black Cats finished rock bottom of the League and Moyes famously conceded the club were in a relegation battle just two games into the campaign.