Bilic’s target looks spot on
The Mirror’s Darren Lewis has reported the central defender/right back as a Bilic target and given their history together, that makes perfect sense.
ClaretandHugh reported yesterday that sources close to Slav had explained he was looking, somewhat surprisingly, for a central defender despite having Winston Reid, James Tomkins, James Collins, Reece Burke, Doniel Henry and the up and coming Reece Oxford on the books.
We explained that the new manager believes he needs another top central defender and given 29 year old Corluka can double at right back and is out of contract, he looks ideal.
Slav signed Corluka for £5.5 million from Spurs when taking over at Lokomotiv Moscow in 2012 and the defender scored on his debut.
He won two monthly supporters polls on the social networks and was named the best club player of the month. In June 2015, after Ćorluka helped Lokomotiv to win Russian Cup, fans named him team’s Player of the Year.
He was part of Croatia’s 2008 Euro qualifying squad under the Hammers boss which finished first in Group E, ahead of Russia and England who eventually failed to qualify from the group.