West Ham manager Slaven Bilic to remain in charge until the end of the season

West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic will be given until the end of the season to hang onto his job and prove he is the right man for the club.

The Hammers picked up their second Premier League win of the campaign on Saturday (30 September), as Diafra Sakho's late goal clinched a 1-0 victory against Swansea and lifted the east Londoners out of the relegation zone.

Despite the season being barely two months old, Bilic has come under scrutiny by West Ham fans for some of his tactical choices, an issue only exacerbated by his side's stuttering start to the season.

West Ham were booed off the pitch at halftime on Saturday and fans at the London Stadium reserved the same treatment for Bilic as the second half began and even when the Croatian made his substitutions.

However, according to the London Evening Standard, suggestions the Hammers' board could be about to pull the trigger and relieve the 49-year-old of his duty are wide of the mark. In fact, West Ham's hierarchy appears convinced Bilic is the right man to steer the club away from the relegation zone and towards a more respectable spot in the table.

Last week, rumours emerged suggesting Carlo Ancelotti could replace Bilic at the London Stadium after being sacked by Bayern Munich, but the former Chelsea manager is unlikely to swap Bavaria to the East End anytime soon.

Co-chairmen David Sullivan and David Gold and vice-chairman Karren Brady do not have a record for firing managers, a reputation which they established during their spell at Birmingham City and have maintained since taking charge of West Ham.

The former West Ham and Everton defender admitted he was getting accustomed to the speculation surrounding his future.

"It's been like this for almost a year," he said. "Do I enjoy it? No, but does it affect me? No."

Bilic was backed by the club in the summer and spent £24m on former Stoke City forward Marko Arnautovic, while Javier Hernandez returned to the Premier League after a £16m move from Bayer Leverkusen.

However, while the latter has scored three goals in seven league appearances this season, West Ham have been leaking goals at the other end of the pitch and have already conceded 14 times, the second-worst defensive record after bottom of the table Crystal Palace.

Bilic, however, insisted his side would go into the international break on an upbeat mode after picking up seven points in the last four games.

"After the last international break we had zero points after three games and 10 goals conceded, so this is a big improvement," he said. "It is much better but we have to play better."

The Hammers boss was confident there was room for improvement and praised his players for not allowing themselves to feel downbeat after a difficult start to the campaign.

"I don't see a lack of effort," he explained.

"I see they want to do it, not just now but after the first three games when we had zero points, I didn't see a lack of discipline in the camp. On the contrary, I saw that we want to do it all together.

"Are they doing it for the manager or themselves? At the end of the day that is not important but they did it. You can talk about the quality of our performance against Swansea but we won the game because we didn't give up.