West Ham United have had 11 different permanent managers since the start of the Premier League in 1992 – and several of them really haven’t been very good at all.
The total goes up to 13 if you include the two caretakers appointed in that time: Trevor Brooking enjoyed an unbeaten stint which wasn’t enough to stave off relegation in 2003, while Kevin Keen’s sole game in charge eight years later came with the team already condemned to the Championship.
We’ve taken a look at the 11 permanent appointments, ranking them from worst to best based on how well they performed in charge of West Ham.
11. Avram Grant
Well, this was a disaster. Who would have thought appointing a man whose previous team had finished bottom would lead to your team… finishing bottom.
Grant wasn’t helped by marquee signing Thomas Hitzlsperger missing more than half the season through injury, but he also wasn’t helped by his other signings, including Pablo Barrera, Tal Ben-Haim, Wayne Bridge and Robbie Keane, being various levels of crap.
West Ham were relegated after picking up an embarrassing one point from their final eight games. Perhaps even more embarrassingly, they conceded Conor Sammon’s sole Premier League goal in Grant’s final game.
10. Glenn Roeder
There’s an argument for Roeder being bottom of this list, having relegated a more talented West Ham squad – and possibly the most talented collection of players to slip out of the Premier League.
However, he avoids that honour by virtue of his first season actually being pretty good, even if it did begin with humbling defeats against Everton (5-0) and Blackburn (7-1).
The fair-haired manager integrated Jermain Defoe into the first team, won a league game at Old Trafford, gave Joe Cole the armband and later handed Glen Johnson his debut. If the board had backed him in the summer of 2002, West Ham may have survived.
Roeder sadly passed away in February 2021 at the age of 65. West Ham joint-chairmen David Sullivan and David Gold said: “We are both deeply saddened by the passing of Glenn, who was hugely respected and liked by everyone in the game.”
READ: ‘Too good to go down’: Unravelling the mystery of West Ham’s 2003 relegation
9. Billy Bonds
Club legend Bonzo took the club back up to the Premier League and kept them there in the 1993-94 season, but on the basis of that one campaign there’s not all that much to say.
The season was… fine, more or less. At least on the pitch.
8. Gianfranco…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Football365…