No ‘Wally with Brolly’ jibes from Slav

West-Ham-vs-NewcastleSlaven Bilic was responsible for the humiliating defeat which landed Steve McClaren with the “Wally with the Brolly” tag!

For it was Slav who masterminded the Croatian victory over England and prevented them from making Euro 2008.

But as he prepares to go head to head with the Newcastle boss today he said: “I’ve known him from the beginning of his career because my team-mates Aljosa Asanovic and Igor Stimac went to Derby when I played for West Ham.

“Steve was Jim Smith’s assistant at Derby and they told me how great he was as a coach. Then he went to Manchester United and Ferguson only employed the best coaches.

“Sir Alex didn’t want Steve to go but he went to Boro for a few years and did a really great job there.

“Then that happened with England. After that he did a great job in Holland. He was unlucky or didn’t have enough time at Wolfsburg, but it was strange in that the club is now doing well.

“After that he came back and did a good job and went to Newcastle.First of all he is a football man and he is crazy about football. He’s a big gentleman and I respect him a lot.”

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

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