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Boss Bilic: ‘I was trying to be respectful’

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Slaven Bilic has ‘big time’ respect for Andorra minnows FC Lusitans and has refuted claims of disrespecting the club.

Bilic watched from the stands at Upton Park as his side cruised to a 3-0 first leg victory over Lusitans

Lusitans coach Xavi Roura’s well reported comments have been sadly received byu Bilic, David Gold and the club and the new manager retorted that the decision was made because he had been splitting his time between two groups of players rather than disrespecting both opponent and competition on Thursday.

‘I respect Terry (Westley).  I respect West Ham so I wanted to show respect to Terry as he coached this team and he took them for pre-season in Ireland and knew them all well.

‘I didn’t want to be disrespectful to him. Also the majority of the first team is in Ireland so that was behind our decision to do it like this.’

 Bilic spoke to his players in the dressing before the match after flying in from a training camp in Ireland

‘I will now go back to Ireland on Friday to meet back up with the first-team group,’ he added.

‘To be honest I don’t really like this kind of situation with one half of the team in Ireland and one half in England but it will be that way until after we play our second leg in Andorra next week.’

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Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!"

Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

0 comments

  • essexclarets says:

    Am i the only one watching KN make a tw#t of himself on A League Of Their Own?

  • Billy Hammer says:

    No mate,im not.Thanks i will wait till the show finishes before putting sky on now,lol

  • essexclarets says:

    Don’t bother, name 3 west ham managers of the 21st century??
    erm… Avram Grant, dad…sorry I mean BFS &………….. erm…….. er……..!!

  • stuck on 99 forever says:

    Lol,no essex i aint,saw he was on it so gave it a miss.Decieded to watch Clint Eastwood instead,he knows how to shoot straight & hit the target 😉

  • Baz Brushe says:

    Who cares what that mug from Andorra thinks & no i aint watching Nolan,i try to avoid watching him on the pitch,dont want to see him trying to be a celebrity as well,lol 😉

  • Lt. Quickdrawovic 1st Slavalry C&H Regt says:

    This Xavi was having a laugh he’s just after his 15 minutes of fame before he goes back to goat worrying.
    I thought KN was on league of their own every week,oh no that’s James Corden I get mixed up between the two lol

  • bubs says:

    If only Corden would look in to Nolans eyes like he did Barlows,that might be worth watching,
    Slav should not give it a second thought,and not even bother going to the away game,
    Wesley can wipe the goat turds off his hands after shaking with Xavi ( Bubba from the Klan )

  • Lt. Quickdrawovic 1st Slavalry C&H Regt says:

    Haha bubs the picture you’ve painted of Xavi is priceless. Poor old Terry will get chased out of Andorra by pick up trucks playing banjo music lol

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