Tony Cottee believes Manuel Pellegrini’s fate will be determined by the outcome of West Ham’s clash with Chelsea on Saturday.
The Hammers legend was asked by Alan Brazil how long he thought Pellegrini had left at the London Stadium given the club’s run of results, and shared it could be all over for the manager depending on the match with the Blues.
Cottee shared that he watched West Ham’s 3-2 loss to Tottenham on Saturday and suggested that the game could have ended 4 or 5-0 in Spurs’ favour.
“Well they’ve got Chelsea away at the weekend Al and I think that will pretty much determine what goes on,” said Cottee on talkSPORT (8:41am, Tuesday, November 26th).
“West Ham’s performances in the last six or seven games… we were both at the game on Saturday and it was if it had been 4 or 5-0 to Tottenham, most West Ham fans wouldn’t have been able to say too much as in the first 60-70 minutes, they were dreadful.
“So the Chelsea game will determine the Pellegrini outcome.”
OPINION
If Pellegrini’s future depends on West Ham getting a positive result against Chelsea, then he should start packing his bags. After all, would you bet against Frank Lampard’s side right now? The Blues were on an 11-game undefeated streak recently, with it only ending on Saturday at the hands of Manchester City. Given that Pep Guardiola’s side finished as Premier League champions last season and beat the Hammers 5-0 on the opening day of the season, it says a lot that Lampard’s team actually came close to not suffering a defeat at their hands. The only thing that potentially works in West Ham’s favour when it comes to the Chelsea clash, is that Lampard’s side do have a midweek fixture against Valencia in the Champions League so may be a little tired in comparison to the Hammers come Saturday. However then again the Blues have a big enough squad to rotate tired players out if that ends up being the case.
