Real reason Manuel Pellegrini was sacked made clear during West Ham draw with Brighton

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West Ham United may not have been doing well under Manuel Pellegrini but things have somehow got worse under David Moyes.

The Hammers sacked Pellegrini at the end of December after a 2-1 defeat to Leicester City.

And they have won just once in the six league games since. West Ham were 2-0 and then 3-1 ahead against Brighton on Saturday but by the end were clinging on to a 3-3 draw.

As a result West Ham fans are waking up this morning with their team in the relegation zone.

With back-to-back away matches against Manchester City and Liverpool up next – either side of the winter break – they look likely to remain there for some time yet.

Woeful Moyes has some fans thinking Hammers would have been better off sticking with Pellegrini

Moyes was hardly the most popular appointment in the first place.

And West Ham’s woeful form has seen some supporters suggest the club would have been better off sticking with Pellegrini until the end of the season.

But if the pathetic collapse against Brighton achieved little else, it served to show the real reason Pellegrini was sacked – for the biggest waste of money in the history of West Ham, Sebastien Haller.

If it wasn’t already perfectly clear to most, another abject display from the French striker proved Pellegrini squandered £45million on the French flop.

The record signing was ineffectual throughout.

West Ham’s potency was instead propped up by Michail Antonio and Robert Snodgrass as Haller toiled.

Other strikers might struggle for form, goals or confidence. But they still add value to the team by working hard, pressing the opposition defenders and making a nuisance of themselves.

Going through the motions

But Haller once again just went through the motions.

The tall forward possesses a powerful frame but never puts it to good use.

His “pressing” amounts to jogging half-heartedly from defender to defender with no real desire to actually win the ball or help his team.

He is merely keeping up his running statistics, but without ever actually sprinting with any purpose to make an impact.

Some West Ham fans likened the 25-year-old to a tree after his latest showing.

Depressingly, that description is frighteningly accurate when it comes to some of his movement.

The difference between Haller’s work ethic and that of the likes of Snodgrass and Antonio is striking.

Six goals from 26 games is evidence enough that Haller is a flop. That is regardless of the debate surrounding the striker being played out of position or not being fed with the right service.

Haller shows the real reason Pellegrini was sacked

Yes there is an element of truth to that argument. But West Ham fans love a trier, even if they aren’t the best footballer, just ask Carlton Cole.

If Haller is a £45million striker, I shudder to think what a certain Dean Ashton would have been worth now.

Whatever the reason for his poor form, there is absolutely no excuse for a lack of desire and effort.

West Ham’s unpopular co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold have been around the block.

They – like the fans – know a flop when they see one.

And at a club record £45million they don’t come much bigger than Haller.

That, as much as anything and everything else, was the REAL reason Pellegrini and his sidekick Mario Husillos was axed.