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CandH Exclusive
Slaven Bilic has received a massive vote of confidence and told: “You have had so much to cope with and are still on line for a decent finish in the club’s most difficult season ever!”
Former Hammers striker John Hartson puts vast majority of blame on the shoulders of Dimitri Payet for ruining the man’s chances of bringing the club through a successful second season.
He said: “Nobody had a clue what was going to happen and Slaven had built a team around him. When the feller decided to act as he did it ruined every plan the manager had made for the campaign.
“You could see from his face and his body language that he had been left absolutely shattered and has since had to completely rebuild the side. It’s hardly any wonder they are struggling a bit.
“With hindsight you can say that the Davids and Karren Brady would have taken the money that was allegedly offered by Real Madrid but they had made him the biggest earner in the club’s history showing just how much Slaven had pinned on him.
“Payet let everybody down including himself with his behaviour and I hurt for Slaven when I see the stick he is starting to get – it’s not his fault. It was the Payet thing.
“There have been so many other factors – adjusting to life at the London Stadium and the injuries to Andy Carroll around whom he had planned so much. As a result he has had to find alternative after alternative.
The man should be allowed to take the club into his third year because very few managers will have had to deal with the amount of bad luck that he has. He’s done a lot of great stuff at West Ham. To get rid of him would be all wrong”
I cannot agree with all these comments sure he was let down by Payet but he knew Carrols history & should not have assumed he would be available all season, also he has created his own problems by continually playing people out of position aka Antonio at right back now Kouyate at right back both have given away goals & shown they are not suited to that position, what makes it worse is he has a right back available. Also he does not seem to have a plan B if things do not go to plan he does not make any tactical changes unless forced to ( i.e. 3-1 down ). The other thing that is disappointing is we never look like we are set up to play aggressive football & take the game to the opposition when we play at home hence we are not entertained at any of the home games,
I wouldn’t clear him of all blame, I thought he handled the Payet situation very well and that did affect the team which we didn’t know about until it finally became clear he was forcing a move. However, not signing a striker after letting Zaza go I’d blame him considering at the moment if Carroll gets injured we aren’t left with much. Playing our best central midfielder in my opinion at right back because again he didn’t sign a right back and obviously he doesn’t rate Byram. Defensively we are an absolute shambles for an ex-central defender not to sort out his defence is abysmal. Julian Dicks you’ve got to argue what is he doing but it’s not about him. When Rio offered his hand in helping out our back line Slav refused I still can’t work out why? I’d be begging him right now to help us out.
All that being said I’m not one of these people that are slowly growing on twitter in the Slav out brigade. I think if he makes the correct signings in the summer and gets a coach on board to sort out defence, he’s the right man for the job. But come January next year if it hasn’t improved I do think it would be time to move on.
Not much to argue about there Jack . You clearly understand the problem.
Whilst I agree that Slav has had an unbelievable amount of setbacks to cope with, you can’t put up any decent argument as to why he can’t set up the team to stop leaking goals. We are so poor defensively which is surprising seeing as Slav was an International defender as was Dicks. Yes Slav dealt with the Payet controversy excellently and his passion for the club is unquestionable but to constantly play Antonio or Kouyate at Right Back is indefensible. You would also need your head examining if you planned anything around Andy Carroll. Everybody knows he is injury prone and you’ll be lucky if he plays half a season. There are plenty of reasons West Ham have not repeated last seasons performances. The move to Stratford, lack of investment and the poisonous French toad have all played their part but Bilic’s tactics and stubbornness have been a far bigger reason as to why we could yet be dragged into a relegation battle. I love Slav and a photo of him and myself, shaking hands, hangs proudly on my living room wall. I will not, however, let my love for him blind me from seeing that he looks out of his depth in the Premiership and should be replaced. If the board choose to stick by him then I truly hope he proves me and all the other doubters wrong. Nothing would give me more pleasure than to see Slav holding a trophy, adorned in Claret and Blue ribbons, high above his head. I just have huge doubts that will ever happen. Cue the hate.
I thought what you said made a lot of sense,shame about the last pointless remark however lol
Agree with the sentiments in above posts, we have been making slow starts, conceding sloppy goals and been without a regular striker and right back for the duration of his tenure.
I like the others would love to see him get it right but in two years we are still making the same mistakes and haven’t addressed the problem positions within the team, you can now add goalkeeper and left wing to that list.
Perfect senario …. get 6 points quickly and then have a look at the youngsters . Cullen . Browne, Burke , Oxford ( if poss ) Martinez , Samuelson etc. One or two coming through would make such a difference to the squad and the deadwood can go .
And how do you propose they are to play when they are out on loan and cant return until the end of the season bubbles.Im just wondering
These comments are all laced with ideas of grandeur and reflective of our ‘throw-away’ society. There was a time when we knew what and who we were. Now it’s all ***** and moan. Saddens me.
It’s okay though – soon, we’ll all be tuning in to watch people playing FIFA matches rather than the real thing, then you can prove that you know best and have all the answers. The truth is, nobody knows what it’s like to be on the training ground each day, intimately getting to know the abilities and personalities of 50-odd guys, then fusing all that together to put out the optimal team each week to beat a different opponent with different abilities and drivers, then having to stand there, alone and take this inane bull**** from 55,000 ‘know it all’ fans…
Yes, we start slow. We’ve played players out of position (for reasons we don’t know) and we’ve struggled to hit the heights of last year. Why is anyone surprised? We’re West Ham, not Arsenal, so perhaps we should all just chill out, reflect on the last 10 years and how far we’ve come, and give Slaven our total backing. In Slav I Trust.
👍👍👍👍👍
+ 42. Well said, Mr. Lurve! 😀
We now know that Oxford has a no return clause in his loan but i don’t think we know about the others .. do we ?
Which makes me wonder why we would allow such a clause in first place ?
COYI