Slaven Bilic has snubbed Rio Ferdinand’s offer to help out as a defensive coach at the training ground.
The former Hammers defender had hoped he could assist the manager but we understand from sources at the club that has been rejected.
As we reported earlier the manager himself has now taken over in that area and is working with the defenders on a daily basis.
Ferdinand becomes the second former Hammer to be turned down by the Irons boss with John Hartson admitting that he too put himself forward earlier in the season.
Harts said: ““I actually spoke to West Ham about going in and having a role, like Sheringham did.
“There was several names who put their names forward, but Slaven was pretty close with Dixey and he chose him.
“Rio has great experience and I’m sure their defenders would have loved to work with him, but it’s Slaven’s prerogative.”
I can understand slav turning them down as its his team and his the manager amd he wants to prpve to everyone he can do it but it also tales a man to admit wuen then need help which unfortunatley i think he does either him or the backroom staff are not doing what there ment to but we could use a fresh face with new ideas admitably slav is stressed and is not probably seeing the situation with a wide eye bit think turning down these ex players could of helped in a big way
Silly to turn down Rio in my opinion, could of really sorted out our defence with his experience. I questioned Julian Dicks appointment when we got him in, hardly done anything with regards to coaching. Didn’t do particularly well at Grays Athletic followed by a stint as the ladies manager. Being an ex defender I expected him and Slav to sort out the defence but we’ve been shipping goals the past 2 years albeit last season we were scoring with ease. I hope Slav turns it around but my view is if it’s not working you can’t keep sticking with the same people expecting them to turn it around. Like we did with Avram, i’m also not saying sack Slav but maybe a shake up is needed, i’d say a fitness coach would be one person that needs changing for sure. Look at Spurs Pochettino has got a team that chases everything down for 90 minutes I imagine they’re the fittest team in the league, where as we don’t look like we can last for 90 minutes! We for once need to take a leaf out of their book.
East Stand last season Spurs were the fittest team, this season it’s Liverpool followed by Spurs, every team now is working harder, Burnley who we play shortly are also right up there in the fitness stakes so it will be interesting to see what happens if we are still low on confidence for that game, Chelsea and City have both really improved their fitness also, the only team that are doing well that don’t look as though they have is Arsenal who obviously make the ball work really well for them, if you look at Utd they have the expensive signing but are also clearly not as fit as their opponents hence their league position and inability to kill teams off. In order to turn it around just train the team harder, the Spuds have less injuries because the fitness work involves working with resistance bands to strengthen their legs and core, specifically the muscles that the will use the most and that support other muscles they will use, you can see Chelsea and City have a very similar approach other than Kompany they seem to have less injuries as do Chelsea compared to teams of old. If you do the right training you can train more, that training also improves balance and posture again things that support long term solutions. These are not new concepts, the other thing a lot of these clubs do is play futsal in training rather than training on big pitches because it improves close control and decision making under pressure another area we are sorely lacking in, our team should pass and move with a purpose but too often we see them tapping it back to each other or worse playing their team mates into trouble. Football is not a complicated game, the harder and more purposeful you work in training the better you will play on match days. If we don’t see a turnaround in the next two games its time for a change.