Bilic wins backroom team battle

Slaven Bilic will retain the same back room staff when he goes into the new season despite the rumbles of discontent heard throughout the last part of the season.

Speculation had persisted throughout the campaign that the board wanted changes to Bilic’s staff as the team  look under-prepared and unable to see games out.

Bilic added Julian Dicks to his team of three Nicola Jurcevic, the assistant boss along with coach Edin Terzic and fitness guru Miljenko Rak.

There had been particular discussion over 70 year old Rak but ultimately the subject of replacements was never approached at the end of season review meeting.

Having decided that Bilic would continue into a third year, to discuss his support team was considered unwise and was not raised at any stage in the conversations.

Bilic is known to be fiercely loyal to his chosen lieutenants and would have been almost certain to have refused any suggestion that they should be replaced.

And it means that for now anyway, the Croatian boss is in total command of the ship as we head into the summer and towards and into the 2017-18 season.