Pardew's job is safe even if West Ham are beaten by Blackburn

Alan Pardew's future as manager of West Ham United is safe even if they lose at home to Blackburn Rovers on Sunday.

The situation would only change if West Ham played extremely poorly, were very heavily defeated ­ with Pardew barracked by the fans ­ and then followed that with another terrible performance against Arsenal, their next opponents.

Even then there is little appetite to dismiss Pardew, who is not blamed for the current crisis despite a run of eight defeats which has left the club second from bottom in the League and out of two cup competitions.

West Ham's four executive directors met yesterday and decided to back the manager who they still believe has done a great job at rebuilding the team ­ and on a limited budget.

At the same time, the £100m takeover of West Ham proposed by the Iranian entrepreneur Kia Joorabchian, and backed by the Israeli property magnate Eli Papoushado, along with the investment bank NM Rothschilds, has still not progressed and is not likely to be resolved for two weeks.

Papoushado, along with the agent Pini Zahavi, had dinner in Tel Aviv on Sunday with Sven Goran Eriksson but sources said yesterday there was " no chance" the former England manager was being line up to replace Pardew. Instead, the group were believed to be discussing "other matters ".

Alan Curbishley, the former Charlton Athletic manager, is also not being considered, despite reports. Joorabchian is believed to be keen on a South American or Mediterranean coach should he, as expected, replace Pardew if he gains control.

The Icelandic consortium, headed by Eggert Magnusson, has been frustrated in its attempts to acquire West Ham and has still not met the chairman, Terry Brown. Magnusson flew to London last week for a meeting but was rebuffed and is losing hope of a deal being done.

It was claimed yesterday that Brown had admonished Pardew and the players following the League Cup defeat to Chesterfield. However, Brown went into the tunnel to offer support.

Brown said last night: "I went down to the tunnel to make sure Alan was OK after a very difficult night. We talked about a couple of positive aspects but nothing negative or critical was said.

"Alan was hurting, but I put my arm around him and told him everything would be fine."