I have to say I didn’t quite understand the West Ham managerial saga after Sam Allardyce’s departure. I get West ham are moving to the Olympic stadium, they have a big following in East London and they are a settled Premier League club, but when they were approaching Carlo Ancelotti I mean COME ON! I’m a big fan of ambition and of course aim high and you’ll do better but that is just delusional.
Over the summer David Gold stated that they only wanted a manager of “the highest calibre” and someone who “wasn’t a risk”. Instead, they got Slaven Bilic, this isn’t intended to be a hate piece against the Hammers but they were never going to get Rafa Benitez either, I mean yet again what were they thinking. West Ham are a club that got into the Europa league via fair play regulations, they are closer to a relegation battle than 4th place so they were never going to get a champions league quality manager. As much as the Olympic Stadium is an attraction it’s not like they are Barcelona, and of the “West Ham way”… I am a football fan from London since birth and don’t know what it is, so I don’t think anyone does.
As a result West ham got the best they could in Slaven Bilic, maybe Moyes would have been a good choice but he was already comfortable in Spain. Ironically, in Bilic they have got exactly what they wanted to avoid, a risk. When David gold said (via football365) we want a manager who would have been successful in one of the major leagues in the world, he probably didn’t mean Turkey with Besiktas. He meant the Bundesliga, Serie A and La Liga, not the manager of a team that came 3rd in both seasons that he was in charge in the Turkish Süper Lig. Slaven Bilic is no champions league manager.
However, that’s not to say he’s not the right choice, he’s just not the one Gold and Sullivan wanted. He has a wealth of experience ranging from the Russian league with Lokomotiv Moscow, to a successful spell with Croatia. He also used to play in the Premier League which helps, with both Everton and conveniently West Ham. As a result, West Ham have a young, fairly up and coming manager who knows the club… Perfect no? Well, given West ham’s awful European campaign probably not.
HOWEVER, It’s just the beginning and he has always done well wherever he has gone, though not necessarily trophy winning, he is easily a manager capable of managing West Ham’s expectations. Also, it must help that the guy is as passionate as most get, something which is much appreciated in East London.
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