Blind Hammer reports on Bilic’s Radio Five Live remarks.
Slaven Bilic was the guest on Five Live’s Sportsweek this Sunday. He made some interesting comments on his time at West Ham.
ON Payet.
Payet was not difficult to manage generally. He was good in the dressing room and not difficult throughout the first season. He was OK for the start of the second season. Bilic did not believe that Payet’s desire to move was about money, as to be fair, the club had rewarded him. However he did want to move back to France. When he could not do this he became silent and withdrawn from the rest of the squad. The other players noticed this and this is when Bilic eventually had to come out in public to report what the issues were. The Manager has ultimate control but in the end you need your best players playing for you, creating or scoring goals. If this is not happening then it needs sorting out.
On his record at West Ham
The first season was incredible but he thought season 2 was very good as well. Season 2 was good because of the difficulties that they had to overcome. This was not only about the difficulty of adjusting to a new Stadium but the incredible amount of injuries and surgeries that depleted the squad throughout the season.
On Pressure
West Ham was not the most difficult and pressured job he has done. The most pressured and difficult job he did was managing Croatia for 6 years WHERE HE HAD TO COPE WITH THE EXPECTATIONS OF A WHOLE Nation.
On leaving West Ham.
Bilic did not have hard feelings about the sack. He said it was done in a “nice and polite” way. Karren Brady was the messenger but of course he knew it was likely to come. He said that he still felt he could have turned things around at West Ham.
Later in the interview however he appears to have more ambivalent feelings about this. He most surprisingly said that actually he should have left West Ham at the end of season 2. He said to be fair that he had been desperately tired, having worked nonstop in management for over 10 years. This need for rest was why he had not already returned to management. He said that he had already been contacted about his interest in alternative management jobs, including contact from Premier League as well as clubs abroad. He had turned them down because he still felt he was recuperating. Unless he received an incredible offer, he did not plan to return to Management until the summer.
On David Moyes.
Bilic felt that Moyes had done a great job since he had gone to West Ham. The big advantage Moyes has had over him was that he was able to come in and go “right back to basics”. This is always easier for a new Manager to do coming in from outside compared to a Manager who already has a history complicated by existing relationships established with players.
The full interview is available on BBC iPlayer.
COYI
David Griffith