Slaven Bilic, West Ham United Part Ways: Latest Details, Comments and Reaction

West Ham United parted ways with manager Slaven Bilic on Monday, bringing to an end a two-and-a-half-year spell for the Croatian at the east London club, per the club's official website.

The Hammers also confirmed in their statement that "Bilic's coaching assistants Nikola Jurcevic, Edin Terzic, Julian Dicks and Miljenko Rak have also left the club with immediate effect."

The 49-year-old said he was not surprised to lose his job, per Sky Sports (via Vaishali Bhardwaj in the Evening Standard): "I expected it. There are no hard feelings. I can be very proud of my work here. We didn't start this crucial season well. As in many clubs across Europe, the manager is the one who pays the price. It's a very logical move. The fans were brilliant to me from the start until the end."

Bilic leaves the Hammers lying in the drop zone in the Premier League after a mediocre second season in charge has been followed by a terrible start to the current campaign.

Originally appointed West Ham boss in June 2015, Bilic made some astute summer signings—notably the terrific Dimitri Payet—and led the Irons to a seventh-placed Premier League finish in 2015-16.

They accumulated 62 points in the domestic season, the club's highest-ever return for a Premier League campaign. Yet 11th was the best the Hammers could do in Bilic's second year at the helm.

Payet returned to Marseille, injuries mounted and the squad struggled to adapt to life in the new London Stadium. Heavy defeats became common, and that pattern continued during the early stages of the 2017-18 season.

West Ham began the current campaign losing 4-0 to Manchester United at Old Trafford. Defeats to Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur and promoted duo Newcastle United and Brighton & Hove Albion followed in the next eight matches as the Hammers won just twice.

In each of those four defeats West Ham conceded three goals, a clear indicator of the Hammers' defensive frailty on Bilic's watch.

The final straw was then a 4-1 home defeat to Liverpool on Saturday, a game in which the hosts were poor barring a short spell at the beginning of the second half when they pulled a goal back, only to concede again barely a minute later. 

Bilic ultimately paid the price for failing to get a squad featuring several talented individuals to play as a team. Big-name signings such as Javier Hernandez, Joe Hart, Marko Arnautovic and Pablo Zabaleta couldn't end the malaise as West Ham lacked a collective plan to improve form.

The next manager will be tasked with getting more from the experience and quality at his disposal in a team surely too good to be relegated.