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Slaven Bilic: West Ham respect the Europa League but the Premier League is our priority
My first match as a Premier League manager is at Arsenal on Sunday and I am very excited, of course. First of all, it’s a new job and this is the place where I wanted to come.
I can’t wait for it to start and it couldn’t be bigger with our visit to the Emirates.
I have to say, the preparation has definitely been different. We have tried to treat the Europa League opportunity with every respect but without jeopardising our future in the Premier League, which has always been the club’s priority.
I have always had an ambition to come back to the Premier League. I played and lived here for a time.
I liked it then and I kept some connections here after my playing career in this country.
I have read that it was my dream to manage in the Premier League but I wouldn’t put it that way. I’ve been totally happy in all my jobs, starting with Hajduk Split, followed by the Croatia Under-21 team, six years in charge of the seniors, then Russia and finally two years in Turkey.
I was never praying that I would come to England but the ambition was always there to come here and now I am very happy.
As a player I believe I had my best years in England. I also played in Germany, for a very good club, Karlsruhe in the Bundesliga, and was captain there. I enjoyed that experience also.Even before I came here to play, I liked a lot of things about this country, the music, the humour — Only Fools and Horses — that sort of thing, even the TV adverts and, of course, the football.
Before the Heysel tragedy the English clubs dominated — Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa.
I lapped up English football. I was 14 maybe and like a sponge, absorbing everything about the game here, putting posters on my wall.
Even now I am labelled as a big anglophile back in Croatia. There is no one single reason for that but I suppose it is as a result of all those many things I have just mentioned.
I love Germany, I enjoyed it there big time but this is the place for me and I am not saying that now because I am here.
The biggest problem of preparing for the Premier League season while playing in the Europa League — in fact, the only problem — is that it has been so difficult to get all of our players together.
I would rather call it a situation, than a problem, however. We had to stop moaning about it and try to find one or two solutions.
We had to cope with it. As I have said many times before, it wasn’t ideal but now we are ready.
Almost exactly a year ago, when I was at Besiktas, we played Arsenal home and away in a Champions League qualifier, losing 1-0 after two legs.
It was a big thing for Besiktas and before we met them we had beaten Feyenoord. It was the toughest draw for us but I thought we had a good chance as we had a good team.
The first leg in Istanbul finished goalless and they had Aaron Ramsey sent off near the end. We played well, though, and then came to London and finished a bit disappointed that we hadn’t beaten them, as many people said we should have done.
I remember at the end that Jack Wilshere admitted we should have had a penalty when the scores were level.
We didn’t get it and then Alexis Sanchez scored just before half-time, his first goal for the club.
I also recall speaking with Arsene Wenger after that game — a man I admire, of course — and he said something I liked at that time.
He told me he had never before seen a Turkish club team that, over 180 minutes in Europe, hadn’t begun to crumble.
He told me, “All the time you were a team”, which meant a lot.
Yes, we were disappointed to go out but we gained confidence that we put to good use when we then played Tottenham and Liverpool in the Europa League.
Having watched the video of Arsenal’s match against Chelsea on Sunday, they looked a little different to me but perhaps that was because of the so-called situation with the two managers.
Before, Arsenal have scored one goal, then pushed for another — an attitude that everyone in football, including myself, enjoys.
In the past they usually thought more of what they were going to do when they got the ball than, as they say these days, parking the bus. Another difference I have seen in the last couple of seasons is that they are no longer selling top players — Marc Overmars, Emmanuel Petit, Thierry Henry.
Now they are buying — Sanchez last season, Petr Cech now and probably more to come.
I didn’t see them selling anyone.
As a result they should be better — unfortunately!
I’m gutted that we have lost Enner
I am absolutely gutted for Enner Valencia. He is a smashing lad, he is a big player for us and it’s a giant blow that he has injured his ankle and knee. It could have been worse, though, and hopefully he will be back in 10 to 12 weeks. In the meantime, we will keep looking for top players — not a lot of them but the right ones for us.
I’ve settled back into london… but no gigs
I've had no problems settling in to life in London. It is not completely new to me. The training ground is still at Chadwell Heath and it is better now than 20 years ago. A lot of the faces are new but some of them are the same. I will settle in completely when I slip into that routine — train, go home, eat, watch a movie, watch a video of your opponents, then back to training followed by a game. Up to now I haven’t been out once — zero. There has been no time for any music gigs or a night out somewhere in London but I didn’t come here for that. When I have my family here it will be better but the bottom line is that everything will be good if the results go the right way.
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