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Eggbert Nobacon 12:40 Fri Oct 23
Super Slavs Super Standard Super column...it's Super

Slaven Bilic: It’s jealousy that drives the critics’ hatred of Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho

SLAVEN BILIC 15 minutes ago0 comments

What is the point of winning the Premier League if Chelsea sack Jose Mourinho now? The whole year, you are fighting for every point. You sacrifice every day — you analyse, train, don’t eat pizzas or go out and have to deal with pressure — you come through everything, win it and then the minute after you put the trophy down, it means nothing?

I am in football every day and with everything people say about Chelsea it feels like they won the League two years ago but it was basically yesterday. I understand critics work like that but I will never accept it or say it is normal. It is unbelievable how quickly people turn on clubs. Chelsea should get more credit, especially the manager.

It is not like he is a one-season wonder. He has been doing it for 10 years now, every year with every club in every country. He started from nothing — he did not have a platform as an ex-player where you get extra sympathy from the start. Instead he earned his success.

I am a big fan of his. He polarises people but most of the best managers do.

A lot of those people that hate him do so out of jealousy. At the top of Mount Everest, the sun is shining the brightest but also you must deal with the strongest wind.

Everybody wants to be him or a guy at that level. Whether you like or dislike him, you still have to respect him. Nobody can deny he is one of the best managers around.

All those people who are questioning his methods have to remember one thing: he has never changed. From the start and through all the success he has achieved, whether it is the way he plays or the way he talks, he is the same.

His first press conference at Chelsea, where he called himself the ‘Special One’, was just like his last one in midweek. The words were different but they were delivered in the same style.

Tomorrow’s match at Upton Park will be my first competitive game against him — I managed Besiktas in a friendly against Chelsea before — and although his side are struggling, there is never a good time to play them.

We are confident of continuing our good form but we know they are capable of anything. They had a solid performance against Dynamo Kiev. They have class and haven’t lost it.

Okay, they have been below their best but that makes it a very dangerous time to face them. Chelsea are a wounded lion. The way they are going to approach this game will not be like the past where they may think they have the form to win easily. Now they are going to be very, very motivated because they cannot fail.

What makes it a good time for us is that we have a good momentum behind us. Beating Crystal Palace meant more to me than another victory as West Ham manager. Winning at Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City are more historical but we had to show both sides of our game evenly there. We had to be solid as in the other games but then you have more of the ball so you have to deliver a complete performance and not just defend all the time.

The mood here is very good. There is no better way to gain confidence than by winning matches and playing well. And there is nothing wrong about being positive under one condition: you have to know your basic jobs and respect that doing those well got us into this position. It didn’t come out of nothing. It happened because we stayed grounded and did our work.

We then have a chance against any team in the Premier League. If we don’t do that, then we are in trouble.

We have a huge respect for Chelsea but we are not afraid of them.



SAME AGAIN THE ORDER FOR ARSENAL

Arsenal have something to hold on to now in the Champions League. I was at Emirates to watch them beat Bayern Munich and that game should give them hope as they try to qualify.

Bayern dominated possession and Petr Cech made a few good saves, but you always need your goalkeeper against a team like that. The challenge for them now is to do it again in Germany.

It looked bad before the game and they could have had no points after four games because to lose to Bayern twice would have been normal. Olympiakos beating Dinamo Zagreb was not the best result for them but Arsenal have so much pace up front with Alexis Sanchez, Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain that they can play the same way and beat Bayern again.




MY DREAM SATURDAY…

I am a dreamer because dreams are the best motivator but only if they are realistic. There should be a very small gap between plans and dreams.

We want to stay as high in the table for as long as possible but let me put it this way: when we beat Crystal Palace, we were on a coach, driving back home and at that moment we were third. Arsenal were playing later in the day against Watford.

I, and I think most of us, when it was 0-0, didn’t want Watford to win and us to stay third. I wanted Arsenal to win because, okay, we would drop to fourth, but Watford would stay far away from us. If we stay in the top four, it will be brilliant but what we have to do first is get safe.

ludo21 12:46 Fri Oct 23
Re: Super Slavs Super Standard Super column...it's Super

Wanting Arsenal to beat Watford to increase our chances of staying up....... Slav sounds more the pragmatist than the dreamer!

One McAvennieeeeee 12:47 Fri Oct 23
Re: Super Slavs Super Standard Super column...it's Super

What a pleasure it is to have this man managing us.

Sven Roeder 12:47 Fri Oct 23
Re: Super Slavs Super Standard Super column...it's Super

Perfect pitch from the manager.

Mourinho will love this sort of stuff .......At the top of Mount Everest, the sun is shining the brightest but also you must deal with the strongest wind.

Give him no ammunition and talk about our work and our ambition.
Without the defeatist bullshit from others who gave up games like this and ordered in an extra pack of chewing gum.

Buster 12:53 Fri Oct 23
Re: Super Slavs Super Standard Super column...it's Super

'We have a huge respect for Chelsea but we are not afraid of them.'

I simply love this man more and more each day.

chim chim cha boo 12:57 Fri Oct 23
Re: Super Slavs Super Standard Super column...it's Super

That's a very good point he makes about Watford in the last sentence.

After beating Liverpool, City and Arsenal, as fun as it appears at the time I don't want them to lose another game against mid or lower table opposition as I don't want those teams to pick up any bonus points.

It's lovely to look up but you've got to look down from time to time too. We'll not repeat what happened in the second half of last season under super Slav but as West Ham supporters we've been especially conditioned to always be looking over our shoulders.

Whatever Slav says publicly I want him to be privately telling his players the importance and significance of tomorrow. It's the last time we ever play one of our most hated rivals at Upton Park.

I still find it hard to get my head around. The last time we EVER play chelsea at Upton Park.

Far Cough 12:59 Fri Oct 23
Re: Super Slavs Super Standard Super column...it's Super

Unless we get them in the cup?

Huffers 1:02 Fri Oct 23
Re: Super Slavs Super Standard Super column...it's Super

Hopefully not!

chim chim cha boo 1:04 Fri Oct 23
Re: Super Slavs Super Standard Super column...it's Super

You know what I mean.

Don't dilute what's happening tomorrow.

'So chelsea tonked us in our last league game at Upton Park'.

'Oh well let's hope we draw them at home in the cup'.

Not the attitude needed here.

Sven Roeder 1:06 Fri Oct 23
Re: Super Slavs Super Standard Super column...it's Super

He is right.
I still look at 17pts as 23 away from reaching 40.
Personally I want to see 5 or 6 teams adrift at the bottom and then will start looking up.

Far Cough 1:06 Fri Oct 23
Re: Super Slavs Super Standard Super column...it's Super

WTF, who's diluting what's happening tomorrow, you said it will be the last time EVER that we play Chelsea, I just gently pointed out we COULD get them in the cup?

i-Ron 1:09 Fri Oct 23
Re: Super Slavs Super Standard Super column...it's Super

chim chim cha boo 12:57 Fri Oct 23

Spot on. People run away with how good they think we are sometimes. Good to see he's keeping every one grounded.

Sven Roeder 1:09 Fri Oct 23
Re: Super Slavs Super Standard Super column...it's Super

Chelsea beat us with an offside goal at Upton Park in what was probably our best performance after Christmas.
And Mourinho went away pointedly wishing Chelsea fans could create anything like the atmosphere we do.

ludo21 1:17 Fri Oct 23
Re: Super Slavs Super Standard Super column...it's Super

It will be a superb atmosphere tomorrow... win, lose or draw we will show these ponces what a proper football club looks like.

FWIW, I reckon Mourinho is jealous of Bilic.... he knows what we've got.

One McAvennieeeeee 1:18 Fri Oct 23
Re: Super Slavs Super Standard Super column...it's Super

Let's hope so, Ludo son.

What we do not need is people fucking booing like against Leicester and Bournemouth.

worm 1:27 Fri Oct 23
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I can't wait for tomorrow.

Texas Iron 1:40 Fri Oct 23
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Very West Ham...!!!

Texas Iron 1:41 Fri Oct 23
Re: Super Slavs Super Standard Super column...it's Super

Bilic...The Enlightened One

Northern Sold 1:41 Fri Oct 23
Re: Super Slavs Super Standard Super column...it's Super

Bilic

`At the top of Mount Everest, the sun is shining the brightest but also you must deal with the strongest wind`.


Allardyce

`It's a well known fact that 84% of balls delivered into the 6 yard box causes 100%potential problems to the opposition 64% of the time"




Thank fuck everything has changed....

* breathes fresh air *

Pervy McBeer 1:52 Fri Oct 23
Re: Super Slavs Super Standard Super column...it's Super

'don't eat pizza's' ... so that's the secret to our success

Eggbert Nobacon 2:00 Fri Oct 23
Re: Super Slavs Super Standard Super column...it's Super

Slaven Bilic: No other player reminds me of Luka Modric as much as West Ham’s Manuel Lanzini

I have never seen a player who reminds me of Luka Modric as much as Manuel Lanzini. Luka is my favourite player. He is my prototype of a great midfielder.

I put Luka in the Croatia Under-21s and then in the senior team and we have a special kind of bond. But Lanzini has the same kind of qualities.

Not many people had heard of him here but we had known him for a while. He was from River Plate, playing in a massive league and under huge pressure. They gave him No10 — a special number — at the age of 20. I wanted to sign him for Besiktas but it didn’t happen because the club received a better offer and he ended up at Al Jazira in the United Arab Emirates. But this time we got him at West Ham.

We have an option to sign him permanently at the end of the season and we will see what happens. What I do know is he is making our other players better.


READ MORE
Slaven Bilic: Jealousy drives the critics’ hatred of Jose Mourinho
Lanzini scored against Crystal Palace but his performance was good not for that reason alone. He always wants the ball. That’s why we put him in midfield.

He could play in a number of positions but his best is wherever the ball is. So he has to be central where he can have most contact.

He always makes himself available. If the players are in trouble, he comes and gets it. He does not look strong but some players can defy that physicality to impose themselves. Modric is the same and, like him, Lanzini is not afraid either. I am delighted with him.

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