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Slave Bilic: ‘I should have left after the second season’

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Former West Ham manager Slaven Bilic has revealed he should have left the club after his second season in charge. Bilic, who was sacked as West Ham boss in November last year, explained he didn’t start his third season from ‘zero’, as he had to face several off-field issues including three away games and many injuries. He stressed he wasn’t making excuses now but the Croatian manager admitted his time out of the game has been refreshing as well, as he had time to reflect on his years in management.

He told the BBC “The first two seasons I see as a big success and I am very proud of them, the first one we broke so many records, the second one I wouldn’t swap it for the first one because with all those problems with surgery, moving the stadium, at the end we managed well. And then I probably made a mistake, I should have left to be fair, I should have left after the second season. I didn’t start from zero I started already in minus if you add to that three away games, the games were away games and a lot of players who didn’t do the pre-season because of their injuries and their surgeries. It ended as it ended. No alibis, no excuses but if I had this knowledge then I would make some things a little bit different’

The whole one-hour BBC Sportsweek programme can be listened to at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09sm8ff#play

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I am Season Ticket Holder in West stand lower at the London Stadium and before that, I used to stand in the Sir Trevor Brooking Lower Row R seat 159 in the Boleyn Ground and in the Eighties I stood on the terraces of the old South Bank. I am a presenter on the West Ham Podcast called MooreThanJustaPodcast.co.uk. A Blogger on WestHamTillIdie.com a member of the West Ham Supporters Advisory Board (SAB), Founder of a Youtube channel called Mr West Ham Football at http://www.youtube.com/MrWestHamFootball,

I am also the associate editor here at Claret and Hugh.

Life Long singer of bubbles! Come on you Irons!

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0 comments

  • zahama says:

    Reading between the lines what he is saying that the owners didn’t give him their full support

  • Stratford E20 says:

    Reading between the lines what he is saying is that he knows that managers like him and Redknapp are one or two seaon wonders and then it all falls apart. Its always the same with managers that are too friendly with their players.

    • West Ham Fan No 32 says:

      I wouldn’t even put him in the redknapp bracket Stratford, Harry wouldn’t take as much rubbish as Bilic did, Moyes is imho better than both of them, over time we will see a gradual building, maybe it might take longer but he will average us at 55 – 60 points a season probably within 2 or 3 seasons and I think there is a real possibility to do what Tottenham have and gradually become Europa League regulars then who knows, we will need a bit of a change in mindset from the owners who need to buy high quality young players and high quality senior pros, get more like Rice coming through as well and establish that work ethic from the youth team through to the first team.

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