Slaven Bilic are sacked West Bromwich Albion despite West Brom’s Manchester City draw

Slaven Bilic is expected to be sacked by West Brom on Wednesday despite his side battling for a valuable point in Manchester City.

Albion drew 1-1 at Etihad on Tuesday, but speculation swirled around the stadium that the 52-year-old was prepared for crunch talks with the Hawthorns.

Bilic will be the Premier League campaign’s first managerial victim as the Baggies try to give life to their quest for world-class survival.

Nigel Pearson and Sam Allardyce are already touted as his successors, with Albion unlikely to pay any compensation for a Bilic replacement. The former Croatian coach was out of contract at the end of the season and although his side are encouraged by Tuesday night’s City draw, there have been concerns about the style of play and results.

When asked about the speculation in the Etihad Stadium, Bilic said: “I am very calm. I love my job. I am here and calm. To be fair, I don’t mind. I do my job. I enjoy it. I work hard for myself, for my employees, for the players, for the club, that’s all. Everything else is out of my control.

“But to be fair, I just do my best. I don’t think of other things. I don’t really care what goes on behind the scenes and I don’t care about any of that. “

When asked if the result showed that West Brom is still playing for him, Bilic said, “I don’t like that cliché.

“The players play for themselves, but they listen to our game plan and it’s really good to see your players fight like that. We have this kind of atmosphere, this work atmosphere, all through the season and it hasn’t gone down. Sometimes you win games, sometimes you lose them, sometimes you play better and sometimes you play worse, but we never had a problem with the settings. “

Bilic’s relationship with the West Brom board has been up and down since advancing to the Premier League and hit a new low in October when Albion sold Ahmed Hegazi.

The manager slammed the deal, suggesting that the club had broken promises against the Egyptian defender as he was allowed to land a £ 4m deal with Saudi Arabian team Al-Ittihad just 24 hours before his trip to Brighton.

At the time, Bilic said, “I am very disappointed with Hegazi’s departure because I was assured that he would be staying this week. He should play today, he is a top professional, he had to wait for his chance, but because of his expertise.

“I relied on him very much, losing him on Sunday morning, finding out yesterday morning really disappoints me.

“It was definitely not my decision, it wasn’t a football decision. I am very disappointed that we are a team that needs all of our good players.”