Slaven Bilic has reacted for the first time to suggestions that the Hammers have made moves to attract Zlatan Ibrahimovic to the club.

He explained that whilst the Irons are an ambitious club they are not yet at the level to be considered by such players.

Writing in his London Evening Standard column he said: “I see we have been linked next season with Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Yes, we are ambitious and we are determined to progress. To be realistic, though, we are not yet a club who those kind of players would consider.”

“Okay, nothing is impossible, but Ibrahimovic? If you had ten people sitting in a pub picking their best players in world football, you would have eight or nine who would say Messi or Ronaldo.

Nobody would be surprised if perhaps one person then named the Swedish striker with Bilic commenting: “Are you mad?” because he is in that category.”

Ajax, Juventus, Inter, Barcelona, Milan, Paris St Germain — and everywhere he has been, the club have won the league in his first season there.

I was nearly his coach once, though, because his mother is Croatian and, although he had already played for Sweden Under-21s, he was very close to playing for my country when I was the national coach.”