Taken for Granted.

Managers are being sacked left right and centre this season and it more than likely isn’t over yet. So far this year the Premier League has had three managers given their marching orders: Chris Hughton of plucky Newcastle, Sam Allardyce of wealthy Blackburn, and Roy Hodgson of bumbling Liverpool.

Next in line is anyone’s guess, I think of everyone out there the only real ‘safe’ managers would be Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger. The rest could be gone tomorrow! There are a few though who are teetering a little too precariously towards their P45 for their own good. The likes of Carlo Ancelotti, whose Chelsea side has been in freefall for over a month now, Roberto Martinez who is struggling at Wigan right now and faces a tough task in keeping them in the league this season, but the main manager who’s been in the harrowing spotlight has been none other than Mr Avram Grant.

Avram Grant, a man who once took Chelsea to the Champion’s League Final back in 2008, is now stuck in the Premier League dungeon, commonly known as West Ham United. The Hammers currently prop up the rest of the table, so it’s fair to say they haven’t been having the best of years, but how much of that is Avram Grant’s fault?

West Ham were taken over back in May when David Gold and David Sullivan bought up 50% of the club's shares between them. Since then the club has sacked a manger in Gianfranco Zola and put every player on the transfer list, apart from their one decent player Scott Parker. Yeah, it was hardly the signs of a push for Europe now was it?

But fair enough, when you’re in as much debt as West Ham are drastic measures need to be implemented. They released a few players but the squad is more or less the same is it was last season, with Piquionne thrown in for good measure. Again not exactly much promise.

Okay, so West Ham have obviously not been having a good season, and Grant’s job has come under scrutiny. The ironic thing is that Grant was actually having a good run of games before all this scrutiny even started, beating Wigan, Wolves, Fulham away, Birmingham and even knocking Manchester United out of the Carling Cup. Okay there were plenty of draws and losses, but when you’re West Ham, that happens.

However, the owner’s treatment of Grant over the last few weeks or so, in my opinion, has been nothing short of disgraceful. Either back the man or sack him! Instead they have sat about pondering over the situation. They then realised they wanted him gone so went snooping around in football’s back-alleys where upon they found out-of-work hobbit Martin O’Neill. It seemed a deal had been done with O’Neill and he was set to take over once Grant had stood in as caretaker against Arsenal at Upton Park.

All of this wasn’t even done behind Grant’s back. The chairmen didn’t even try to hide it, after one game even saying Grant would be in charge ‘for now’. I can only imagine all this helped the manager and his team no end!

Hilariously, Martin O’Neill turned down West Ham because he didn’t like the way they went about it and they were forced to come crawling back to Avram, ears down, tail between their legs exclaiming ‘we cant find anyone better so you’ll have to do it’ if this were an RPG Grants confidence just went negative 873pts.

David Gold, David Sullivan, and Karren Brady aren’t fully to blame for the dip in West Ham’s fortunes, however, ask any Birmingham fan about the trio and you won’t find many a flattering remark. Watching West Ham now strikes so many parallels with the midlands club’s troubles a few years ago.

Whether they go down or not they’re going to have a good few difficult years ahead with these three maniacs at the helm. I don’t think Martin O’Neill will be jumping onto the deck of a sinking ship anytime soon, so expect Grant to stick it out until the bitter end.

Speaking of Martin O’Neill though, you may have noticed Darren Bent is at Villa these days. Didn’t Martin O’Neill leave them because they had no money for new players and were selling off his team like a sixteen year old sells his old toys in a yard sale? So where did they come up with £20 million for Houllier? Seems a little odd to me. I don’t know why Bent’s gone there really to be honest, I’d imagine it’s probably for the cash prizes. If you boil down Darren Bent in a pot of water you’re left with pure money. It’s science.