Slaven Bilic targets top 10 for West Ham and Champions League 'in a few seasons'
Saturday 20 June 2015 14:11, UK
Slaven Bilic’s ambition at West Ham is to get the club into the Premier League top 10 in his first season in charge.
And the Croatian, who was appointed as Sam Allardyce’s successor at Upton Park on Tuesday, feels confident he can take some silverware to the east London club.
Bilic signed a three-year contract to replace Allardyce this week having left Turkish club Besiktas at the end of the season.
It is a privilege to be in charge of the team for its last season playing in a stadium that they've played in for such a long time
Bilic has an affinity with West Ham supporters having played over 50 times for the club during the 1996-97 season and has laid out some ambitious targets as a manager – including securing Champions League football within ‘a few seasons’.
Next year’s move to the Olympic Stadium, Bilic feels, will help ensure such targets are met.
“I’ve been in football a long time and wherever you go the ambition is sky high,” he told the West Ham website. “But with West Ham, I found the ambitions to be realistic and the ambition is right.
“The ambition is to try to be top 10 definitely and then improve on that. First season, if we can finish eighth, ninth or tenth.
“Then, in the space of a few seasons, with the stadium and everything, with hype, with probably a little bit more budget, with good planning and good play, nobody can stop us dreaming of European places or if we have a brilliant season to try to break into the Champions League places.
“To win a trophy, to win a cup. You have to believe in that to achieve it. If you don't believe in that then you’re definitely not going to do that. It doesn't have to be an obsession in a negative way. If you don't believe it, who will believe it?
“Where it's going to take us, I don't know, but logically if you play well and you improve your squad, if your players are playing more compact and more fluid with the ball, it should get you up the league.”
Although he only made 55 appearances as a West Ham player before a transfer to Everton, Bilic feels he has a strong bond with the supporters and sees it as an honour to be the club’s manager for their final season at Upton Park.
“It's a privilege,” he added. “It’s impossible to have a bigger bond with a Club in such a small period of time. I clicked with the players, the fans, with everybody.
“After a couple of weeks, it was straight off and it lasted for one and a half seasons. It was brilliant. It is a privilege to be in charge of the team for its last season playing in a stadium that they've played in for such a long time.”
