OPINION
It was revealed on Thursday morning that former West Ham boss Slaven Bilic had joined West Brom ahead of the new Championship season.
The 50-year-old spent two years at the Hammers, taking charge of 109 games after enjoying a one-year spell as a player at the club.
Bilic enjoyed a good spell in charge in London and averaged a point per match total of 1.43 [Source: Transfermarkt].
Adrian Durham couldn’t believe that the Croatian had decided to take a job in the Championship and even discussed the possibility that West Ham acted too quickly to get rid of him in 2017.
“I can’t believe it, if I just tell you this fact, three years ago he took West Ham to a position where they were four points off the top of the Premier League,” said Durham on talkSPORT (16:10, Thursday June 13th).”
“It is an amazing appointment for West Brom, I wonder when you go back three years or two years ago when he was sacked by West Ham, I just wonder if they were a little bit too hasty.”
Durham is way off the mark with these comments, with the Hammers starting to build a great foundation under Manuel Pellegrini.
The Chilean averages a similar amount of points per game in his 43 matches in charge of the club, and his arrival has seen an upturn in the transfer strategy at the club.
The Premier League winner has been able to attract a different breed of exciting talents to the London Stadium, and his top three signings are the most expensive signatures in the club’s history.
For Durham to make this remark, it stirs the pot with the suggestion that no manager has been able to recreate certain amounts of success, even though Pellegrini has started a project with progression at the heart of it.
Despite Bilic having success at the club in his tenure, Pellegrini will definitely be able to push on next season and prove they have the right man in charge of the club.
If the Croatian was as highly regarded as Durham makes out, a Premier League side would have snapped him up ever since he left Saudi Arabia, with the 50-year-old potentially going into the most dangerous job of his career at the Hawthorns.
