Although West Ham were certainly not a club expected to win titles, trophies, or shake up the league with sumptuous performances of the kind that leave fans beginning for more, they were at least meant to be half decent this season.

However, with new boss Avram Grant failing to find a formula which can get his side performing at the level fans and pundits expected, the manager is running out of time to get his players moving in the right direction. The West Ham betting suggests he has a real fight on his hands.

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of this situation is the simple fact that Grant doesn’t actually seem to have done anything particularly wrong either on the pitch, or in the transfer market. With players such as Scott Parker clearly ready to fight for the cause, the Hammers are a team that cannot be accused of lacking the heart or spirit to scrap or play ugly football for a win. However, although this may be the case, zero points on the board is not the kind of statistic that will leave the club’s impatient owners with the slightest element of contentment and the football odds indicate the relegation battle may be harder than last season.

With Grant unable to take his place in the dugout this weekend due to a religious observance, it is just possible that co-owners Gold and Sullivan will be using the opportunity to see if the weak link in their side’s start to the season has been the very man who they appointed so recently. If this is the case, and they decide to act swiftly upon this revelation, the owners will yet again find themselves having to dip into the club’s finances to sack and then hire another manager, meaning that they will have already got through two in a desperately short space of time.

If this does turn out to be a reality and evolves into a familiar pattern, the owners may well find West Ham floundering in financial difficulties for some time.