When Florin Raducioiu signed for West Ham in 1996 I think we were all very excited. In the end he only made 11 appearances, scoring twice. Harry Redknapp clearly didn’t like him from the off and questioned his attitude. In he end he went back to Espanyol. He’s done an interview for the BWin website on his career in general, but I thought you’d like to know what he said about his time at West Ham…
bq..It has been a long time since I played in the Premier League. At West Ham I had problems with my manager, Harry Redknapp, when I arrived, then I quickly returned to Spain with Espanyol, so my experience of English football was very short-lived. But since then many things have changed in the league, which I still consider to be the most beautiful in Europe. The football is more technical, played at greater speed – it’s incredible to behold. Looking back on it now, I have a lot of regrets because West Ham invested a lot of money in me and I couldn’t live up to that price tag, largely down to my relationship with the manager. We couldn’t communicate and I found it very tough to impose myself physically on the league, as the football I had been used to was completely different.
As a player, you are frustrated when you don’t play, so when Redknapp put me on the bench I didn’t accept it. Unfortunately things just didn’t work out and I decided to go back to Barcelona. I know some West Ham fans regard me as one of the worst players in their history, so of course it was a disappointing period in my career.
I’m pleased to see how far West Ham have come this year with Slaven Bilic, an ex-teammate of mine. I think very highly of him as a man and have good memories of him as a player. Bilic is a stern boss and the work he has done with his current squad is fantastic.