Bilic had ‘Arnie’ watched “week in week out”
Discussing the club’s record signing the boss said: ““Marko was at Inter Milan and Werder Bremen not without a reason, he was there because he was a big talent and all that, with great stature and great skill and everything
“Marko has spent four years in the Premier League at a very good club in Stoke and he improved and developed into one of the best, if not the best, of Stoke’s players. He did four seasons and that’s the reason why we targeted him as the player that we wanted to get.
“It’s not based on a small pattern of ten or 15 games, or even one season but it is four seasons of playing really good football.
“He wanted a new challenge and he’s ambitious as well so when the opportunity occurred, we jumped on it and we tried to do it and we are delighted to get him.
“The expectations are high, of course, but he knows the league, he’s been there and we watched him week-in, week-out and our expectations are high too. We’re going to help him and we’re expecting big things from him.”
“Marko is a player who can play all those three positions behind the striker, or he can play as a second striker as well,” he observed. “Most of the time for Stoke, he played on the left so he is kind of a striker on the wing.”