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Zlatan Ibrahimovic to West Ham? We're ambitious but not yet in that league, says Slaven Bilic
I see we have been linked next season with Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Yes, we are ambitious and we are determined to progress. To be realistic, though, we are not yet a club who those kind of players would consider.
Okay, nothing is impossible, but Ibrahimovic? If you had 10 people sitting in a pub picking their best players in world football, you would have eight or nine who would say Messi or Ronaldo. The 10th would say Ibrahimovic — and nobody would say, “Are you mad?” because he is in that category.
Ajax, Juventus, Inter, Barcelona, Milan, Paris St Germain — and everywhere he has been, the club have won the league in his first season there.
I was nearly his coach once, though, because his mother is Croatian and, although he had already played for Sweden Under-21s, he was very close to playing for my country when I was the national coach.
Antonio is learning... and he’s done it the hard way
I have been delighted with Michail Antonio, who scored the winning goal against Spurs, since he came into the team. He has improved a lot since he came here.
He is a quick learner but when you look at his history — he started out at Tooting & Mitchum — he had no other options than to learn. I didn’t know him before he came here but I have learned his story since. Success was not served up on a plate for him. He had to fight, not only physically but by thinking and learning. It’s much harder to go the route he has, through the leagues and many teams, but when you arrive in the Premier League it must be priceless. You’ve done it by yourself, no one gave you anything. There is that famous saying: what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. But the road to the top can be hard and painful.
West Ham's win over Tottenham was our best yet... now we're looking at fourth spot
I have been told that someone, maybe it was Frank Lampard senior, who played for the club for a long time once said that “West Ham come down with the Christmas decorations” — which is a more entertaining way of saying things were not as good in the second half of the season as the first.
Okay, I would say to that: it has not happened to us yet but there is still a long way to go. Ten games and 30 points at stake. At the moment — and I am touching wood here — we are showing no signs of a dip, either in form or motivation. So how can we, as a manager and coaching team, keep the players as fresh as possible?
First, give them a day off when we can, so we make them clear and happy before the next day’s training. When we do train, though, we expect it to be hard and committed. We want them to have humility, to not get above themselves because things are going well.
Principally, though, our position in the Premier League table is vital. If we were safe but, let’s say, 12th, out of the FA Cup, it would be more difficult. You can try all the motivation techniques in the world but if the players are thinking, ‘We can’t go up, we can’t go down’, then it is human nature to take your foot off the gas just a little bit.
Fortunately, we’re not in that position and it is an easy job to keep them motivated. Yes, we started our season earlier than anyone because of our Europa League commitments and clubs who have been in a similar situation have hit the wall about now.
I will admit our pre-season was not ideal but if you can find the right balance between resting and training, you can manage it. We also did very well towards the end of August, when we signed a few squad players who have since turned into regulars.
We have also coped well, despite the list of injuries which, for some reason, West Ham always seem to accumulate. Even in the period when, from eight options up front, we were without six of them, we coped, we demonstrated the character we have in this squad.
People talk about the intensity of this League and they are correct. For us, though, those injuries earlier this season have meant the players are either back or coming back, reasonably fresh, fit and hungry.
The win over Tottenham also raises the level of expectation — and questions about the Champions League are increasing. I can’t deny it — and it is good that the gap between us and fourth-place Manchester City is small but also below us the clubs are queuing up. There is no point in us looking at the table now. All we can do is use it as motivation and hope to get something out of the next game.
The win over Spurs has to be the most satisfying yet for me. No matter if you are West Ham’s chairman, player, physio, chef or fan — if you have to take one game as being special, then it is Spurs at home. You could feel it. The stadium was sold out against Sunderland last weekend and again on Wednesday night against Spurs. It was different on Wednesday, though, it seemed like there were twice as many people in there. The players used that in a positive way and the crowd really were our 12th man.
Of course, the early goal helped but it was almost a perfect game, against a team who have conceded the least goals, who were scoring many and who were pressing the best. To be better than them in every aspect for almost the whole 90 minutes means it was near perfect.
Despite their setback, Spurs are still in with a great chance of the title. They may have one or two injuries and there may be a little fatigue creeping in. They will overcome this defeat because it wasn’t shocking for them. They knew it was going to be tough here — it usually is. Also, apart from Leicester, the rest at the top lost, so nothing has really changed
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