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After West Ham United’s defeat to Crystal Palace on Saturday it seems as that was the final nail in the coffin for Graham Potter and the club are anticipating sacking the Englishman, but not until a replacement is set in stone.

The Hammers have seemingly given Potter the fixtures against Everton and Arsenal seeing as ‘they don’t believe they are good fixtures for a new manager’ which is rather convenient considering that’s the build-up to the international break, and the return fixture is the game against Brentford, which has planned to be a boycott through fans.

However, overlooking the boards anticipated thought process, the question of which manager and what type of deal to offer is now the question looming in the clubs head.

The contenders for the job, which has been said by numerous sources close to David Sullivan, are currently Slaven Bilić, Nuno Espirito Santo and Gary O’Neil.

Of all the names, David Sullivan is currently favouriting Bilić or O’Neil seeing as they’d be open to a short-term deal, whilst other members of the board are aiming for a manager who’s given a longer contract, with their preferred target being Nuno.

Nuno is said to be open to taking the West Ham job as he’s keen to return to management after his sacking at Nottingham Forest due to tension with the ownership.

But, Bilić and O’Neil are also open to taking the job on short-term contracts with an incentive, the most likely option being an automatic extension if a certain position was achieved.

Usually most would say time is ticking so a decision needs to be made soon, but the board have over a month to decide the next manager to take the cold seat due to the ‘write off’ fixtures as well as the international break.

As the stormy clouds closed in and the protests begun, the London derby against Crystal Palace kicked off which would ultimately see Hammers fans having to endure 90 minutes of an unenthusiastic, lethargic performance with the players coasting around the pitch.

Crystal Palace would take the lead through Mateta from a corner despite Areola taking the starting spot, and Mavros defensive efforts of an acrobatic clearance weren’t able to keep the scoreline level.

All wouldn’t be bad as Jarrod Bowen would convert a header from the corner of Malick Diouf, in which the Hammers saw a surge of attacks but all would amount to nothing. The expected flurry of attacks each game lasted for about 10 minutes, but the lack of urgency to have shots were Potters’ Achilles heel.

Crystal Palace swiftly resumed as always and turned the scoreline around to resume their winning stance. For the remaining 22 minutes, the tactics had no urgency to see us back in the game and considering the style of football West Ham were playing, you’d have thought they were winning 2-1!

In order to bolster the hopes of scoring, Graham Potter made the decision to substitute Summerville for Guilherme as well as Fernandes for Magassa, whom many believe had been our best player on the pitch, instead of Ward-Prowse who had received a negative reception once again.

The weather progressively got worse as the fixture went on, and once making your way out the stadium, the shower of rain became heavier which completed a rather fitting comparison to how Graham Potter’s time at West Ham has gone.

The numb atmosphere before taking a seat to the boos ringing around the stadium at the final whistle, the Matchday environment is becoming more and more against Potter.

This is further shown through the Hammers fans joining in with Crystal Palace signing “sacked in the morning” and “you don’t know what you’re doing”, which proved to be the most unity we’ve had in an atmosphere within the last year.

Time is running around and combining the meetings that took place with Nuno and a defeat today, it feels difficult to imagine a world where there isn’t a change soon.

Manager conversations have been looming around with Graham Potter potentially departing in the near future.

A couple of days ago, the first mention of Kieran McKenna had been brought up after he had been spotted at the Tottenham match. As well as this, the other two names that had been considered were Nuno Espírito Santo and Sean Dyche.

The Portuguese manager has been searching for another job and is ready to challenge in the Premier League again, despite being sacked just over a week ago, with him seen as the frontrunner and most popular contender for the job in the event of Graham Potter being sacked.

However, it has been revealed today that Slaven Bilic is being considered for the job if the Englishman were to be sacked, the Croatian could potentially take over as he's seen as one of the three 'serious' candidates that would be considered.

Many haven't been afraid to make their comments known about the Bilic link, with some suggesting that he would be the right man to help secure this fan base come back together, and could potentially use this squad better than Potter is currently using it, whilst others suggest that it would be ludicrous to go for him when Nuno is available on the market and could potentially be open to joining the Hammers.

The manager situation keeps developing by the day, but it seems that Graham Potter will eventually be replaced; it's just a question of who will be the one to take the hot seat...?