Straight Slav talks on Tomkins and Zaza

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Slaven Bilic has answered two key questions to our season so far – why did Simone Zaza arrive and why did James Tomkins go?

Both are issues that have been hot topics among the fans but as ever the manager has been quick to come out and offer honest answers.

However, some may feel he has taken a step too far in making a Zaza/Dennis Bergkamp comparison after the first four games of the Italian’s loan spell in which he has failed to score!!

Bilic said: “He is definitely a good player who came from a big club to a new country. New players need time. If we go back and think about Dennis Bergkamp, who needed – I don’t know – a year?

“It is quite common with even the best players from abroad. Plus, Zaza wasn’t a regular there and didn’t have match fitness. It takes time sometimes and unfortunately we don’t have that time.”

And he stuck by his guns on his sale of JT adding: “It was never me or the club that wanted to sell him. James wanted to play week in, week out. I rated him a lot as a guy and as a player.

“I used him a lot last year and he played many games for us. But when he wasn’t the first choice, he found it very hard in a nice and sporting way. Not in a bad way. That is the reason. I hate to sell.

“For me it was always the plan to play local players – West Ham academy players, then London-based players, then English, then British. Then, if we can’t find that, we go abroad. Tomkins is local.”