West Ham: Christian Dailly excited by Slaven Bilic appointment
Saturday 13 June 2015 15:00, UK
Former West Ham defender Christian Dailly thinks fans can be hugely excited about the type of football new manager Slaven Bilic will bring to the club.
Bilic, formerly in charge of the Croatian national side, was unveiled as Sam Allardyce’s replacement going into what will be the Hammers’ last season at Upton Park before moving to the Olympic Stadium next year.
Dailly, who spent seven years with the club, told Sky Sports News HQ that the appointment of another former player in Bilic will excite West Ham fans and players alike, and thinks the 46-year-old is capable of taking the side to the next level.
“It is the type of appointment that excited me,” Dailly said. “I’ve been to a few West Ham games since I left, quite a number of years ago now, but I think I would probably be likely to go even more knowing that he was managing because I’m really interested to see what he does with the team and what players he brings in.
“I think it is exciting - it will certainly start a new era at the club and they are moving into the new stadium eventually.
“He seems like a bright guy, he’s got real character about him and if that started to go well, they got a couple of good results, I think it could take off which would be really exciting.”
While the two never played alongside each other, Dailly, who won 67 caps for Scotland, has appeared with some of Bilic’s former Croatia team-mates and knows the passion he will bring to the role as a result.
Dailly said: “He’s a young manager, Bilic, and I’ve played with a few Croatians in my time who were quite like him. Guys like Igor Stimac, Aljosa Asanovic, and Davor Suker and they are really passionate, bright guys who want to do well.
“I think he knows how to deal with players from a personal perspective and his man-management is apparently very good. They never suffer fools, the Croatian guys I’ve played with. Hugely passionate, probably close to matching the Scots in terms of when they play for their country, what it means to play for the team.
“He’d be the type of guy who, when he goes to a club, will completely throw himself in there. I know that when he played at West Ham before he threw himself in there and ended up with huge passion for the club - it never leaves you. I think that’s why he’s been tempted to come back.”
Dailly appeared as a substitute the last time West Ham played in an FA Cup final in 2006, losing out to Liverpool.
With a move to the 80,000-seater Olympic Stadium on the horizon after next season, expectations are beginning to shift for the Hammers and Dailly thinks the club has the infrastructure and fan base to start to trouble the top reaches of the Premier League and compete for trophies.
“They’ll want top 10, they’ll try and push for that,” he said. “In my own opinion of West Ham, having been there, it is an incredible club with a huge fan base, brilliant fans who are really demanding. They want big characters; they want a good team with good players and big players.
“My frustration, when I was there, was that I just wanted someone to get a hold of it and take them towards that top five or six teams and I think they are more than capable of doing that.
“That’s the potential of where they want to be and with the sort of fan base that they have got and the owners that they’ve got there now, they can do that long term. That’s where I think they are heading and that’s going to be great to watch.”
Bilic returned to West Ham after leaving Besiktas following the end of the Turkish season, replacing Sam Allardyce at Upton Park.
While Dailly appreciated the job Allardyce did for his former club, he reckons a parting of the ways may have suited everyone in the end.
He said: “In some ways you could see it being slightly harsh on Sam Allardyce but by the way the board would say one thing and Sam would say something else, it seemed like it was being played out slightly in the public eye, the way that things were going to end up happening.
“I think Sam did a good job. He kept them in the league, they consolidated and are looking to stay there because they are moving to the new stadium.
“It was just a case of maybe Sam wanting to do something different now as well, he can go somewhere else and do something else and they felt like it was time to bring someone in to move things on a little bit to see how that goes, a bit of a change and something exciting.”
However, now that Bilic has taken up the Hammers’ hotseat, Dailly can see changes being made to the way the players train, and doesn’t necessarily see the club having to splash the cash as they have promised to do.
He said: “I think he (Bilic) has talked about them being a little more consistent in the way they play and he is probably more likely to change the way that they train.
“I think there will be a completely new regime that will go in there in terms of the way they structure their week and he’ll try and improve the players that are there already.
“They have said they are going to spend some money. Where that money gets spent really depends on how he sees the players that he’s got because sometimes teams can play a certain way and it doesn’t really suit some players, but as soon as you have a new manager come in he can use them in a slightly different way.
“It’s a little bit like what you see with Gordon Strachan and Scotland. You get similar players but get them to play slightly differently, in slightly different positions, and all of a sudden you look at bringing in a different type of player than you might have thought they would bring in.
“So I think he will weigh it up and look at it before they makes any decisions.”
