West Ham suffered their biggest defeat of the season thus far last week at the hands of Arsenal, taking their current winless streak to five league games.
The poor form of the Hammers has led to speculation surrounding Slaven Bilic's future at the club and a subsequent meeting with vice-chairman, Karren Brady, regarding the matter.
Despite now being in the relegation zone followingSaturday's list offixtures, the pair met up at the House of Lords for a chat over afternoon tea.
Given the setting, Bilic may have been a tad worried that Lord Alan Sugar - Brady's co-star on The Apprentice - might have appeared to deliver his trademark "you're fired" to the West Ham boss.
Explaining the meeting inThe Sun, Brady wrote:"Slaven and I have tea at the House of Lords.Three things he is ” decent, passionate, determined. When he says results will turn round, I 100 per cent believe him."
Despite a host of Bilic signings that have failed to make a significant impact at the club, Brady said:"We talked about theJanuary window and left feeling optimistic."
After spending around £50m in the summer transfer window, the likes of Zaza, Tore andFeghouli have struggled to impress at the London club who have only scored 15 league goals all season.
Brady has since revealed thatshe was "horrified" by the 5-1 home defeat at the hands of London rivals Arsenal, but reiterated a reluctance to sack the Croatian, saying:
"In 23 years in football, my two chairmen [David Gold and David Sullivan] and I have sacked four managers.The best clubs pull together," she saidbefore adding,"that's exactly what we are going to do."
Regardless of public backing for the manager, Bilic is the bookies' favourite to be the next Premier League manager to lose his job and with a trip to Anfield coming up, he may be hopeful that the Hammers can capitalise on Liverpool's embarrassingloss last week by grabbing all three points.