Grant not feeling the pressure

Avram Grant has rejected reports that he has just a handful of games to save his job as West Ham United manager.

Grant, 55, took over at Upton Park in June 2010, but West Ham have struggled under his guidance and are lying bottom of the English Premier League table.

The club’s owners are rumoured to be assessing the manager’s future on a game by game basis, but Grant insists he has not been given an ultimatum by the West Ham board.

“I’ve been speaking with the owners and the only concern is how to make the squad stronger,” Grant said.

“We have more than 10 injuries and a few are them are long term. The squad needs to be strong as there are a lot of important games coming up.”

“I feel that I need to do my job. There’s always pressure in football. The managers at the top are under pressure.”

“We’re dealing with this well because we know what we need to do. We’ve done well over Christmas.”

“We’ve got a vision at this club. We want to stay in this league and I believe we can do it.”

“We’re two points off of 14th and five points from 12th.”

West Ham take on Barnsley in the FA Cup on Saturday before a Carling Cup semi-final against Birmingham on Tuesday.

Grant will be looking for his players to bounce back after they were thrashed 5-0 away to Newcastle United in their last match.

“It was a bad game,” Grant said.

“We did not play well. The players looked tired. We were not quick or sharp.”

“But we’re not analysing only one game. The last few times that we’ve played we played well and picked up eight points.”

“It was a disappointing result. The results elsewhere were disappointing as well. There’s a long way until the end of the season.”

“The team that is strong mentally and the team with the strongest squad, this is the team that can survive.”