What now for West Ham United?

Prior to kick on Sunday afternoon, West Ham United were six points from safety, five goals worse off than 17th placed Birmingham City with two games to play. The latter were at home to a Fulham side that had shown poor form on the road all season while the former were away at relegation rivals Wigan Athletic. 

At half-time, everything was swinging in West Ham's favour. 2-0 up courtesy of goals from the highly courted Demba Ba and, with Birmingham 1-0, hopes were beginning to rise that the Irons could perform the great escape. Twenty-three minutes later, they were bought crashing back to earth. Having scuppered a two goal lead once again, West Ham found themselves staring relegation in the eye as a banner was flown over the DW Stadium stating 'Avram Grant - Millwall Legend'. A 90th minute winner from Charles N'Zogbia confirmed the Hammers relegation to the second tier of English football and also cost Grant his job.

So where does the loss leave West Ham now? Relegation confirmation, no manager with Steve McClaren even turning his nose up at the role, heavily in debt and ready to move into the Olympic Stadium for the 2012 season. Both David's have confirmed key players will be sold to help balance the books so you can expect to see Scott Parker, Matthew Upson, Rob Green and Carlton Cole bounce back to the Premiership in the not-too-distant future. To make matters worse, Police have this morning confirmed they were called to the end-of-season West Ham dinner after Ba claimed he was 'too tired' to sign autographs for fans that paid £275-a-head to be at the event causing a mass brawl. 

Talk about kicking a team when their down, no pun intended. Whoever comes in will have to deal with a seriously depleted squad and with a club in masses of debt; the new man at the helm won't have the chance to bolster the squad with the necessary quality. 

It has been a rocky road for the Hammers since the 06/07 season. The major signings of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano on the final day of the transfer window certainly turned heads and with the club under new ownership from Eggert Magnusson, things were looking up. However, the problems arose when the FA confirmed they would be investigating the signings after a breach of rules regarding third-party ownership of players.

The club got away with a £5.5m fine and, amidst threats of legal action from then-relegation rivals Fulham, Sheffield United and Wigan, eventually staved off the threat of relegation despite spending a majority of the season rooted to the bottom the table having won seven of their nine remaining games. With Alan Curbishley and Gianfranco Zola in charge of the club between 2007 and 2010, the club achieved two top flight finishes and again survived the threat of relegation last season.

However, with Grant at the helm, the club went one better than when Zola was in charge and actually got relegated. It is fitting that it was Wigan that sent them down after the season before they defeated the Latics by the same scoreline to confirm their survival in the top flight. 

The challenge now will be to find a manager quickly that is capable of taking the club back to the Premiership at the first time of asking. Neil Warnock, Chris Hughton and Slaven Bilic have all been touted as a possible replacement and, after McClaren distanced himself from the role; it is anyone's guess as to who will take charge. The sales of the key four players mentioned earlier is inevitable especially with all four wanting to play at the highest level and the debt of the club now set to rise. Promotion at the first time of asking will be the aim otherwise fans may be about to see West Ham join the likes of Swindon Town and Barnsley as the Premier League's forgotten men.

Anyway, I got to go.

Laters,

Macca