EXTRA TIME

The Difficulty of Playing Football in London

November 22, 2019 at 11:18 pm Leave a comment

In a lengthy interview in The Times (Saturday) former West Ham manager Slaven Bilic (now coaching current Championship leaders West Bromwich Albion) had to say the following about West Ham United and their players living in London, about Declan Rice (who was handed his debut under the tenure of Slaven Bilic) and the current crop of young and fearless English players.

“For clubs like West Ham and Crystal Palace, you have a feeling they are only performing when they are struggling, when they have to [win]. When they are eighth or ninth, suddenly they lose a few games. It’s very easy to lose the focus. You don’t notice it. It’s not that you get fatter or you put on 5 kilograms, but you are not thinking about the game five days before the game. You are not sweating before the game and that makes a difference.”

“The players at West Ham are good,” Bilic explained to Times football writer Henry Winter. But the Irons were “a very difficult club to manage. You have always that thing about London, you know. For younger generations of players it is much easier to stay focused if they play in Burnley or here [at WestBrom near Birmingham].” Because of distractions in London? “Exactly. Their friends are always coming in, that simply doesn’t help,” he says. “Here this is for me an ideal training ground. You have everything but it is not a five-star hotel. It smells of football.”

Declan Rice, a future leader

Bilic talks fondly about giving Declan Rice his debut at West Ham. “The question mark is whether he’s a centre back or a midfielder, but he had the brain of a 26 or 27-year-old and he looked like a leader straight away,” Bilic says. “He was so mature, so fearless. He’s going to become a regular in the national team. He’s a leader.”

A fearless generation?

Bilic likes watching this generation of England players, enjoying their fearlessness. He remembers Wembley in the rain, Steve McClaren’s side folding in 2007, sensing England’s fear. “Yes, definitely. OK, they came back to 2-2, which would have been enough [for England to qualify for Euro 2008], but then they had fear – fear of losing – and that blocks you. For me, that [Rooney] generation from 2004 was very strong. In Portugal 2004, you played the best football. I was watching at home thinking, ‘Wow! This is it.’ ”

Bilic talks about the perceived pressure of the World Cup glory, and accidentally refers to ’66 as “666”. “It’s not because of 666 that you are still waiting. When you are going to a big tournament, fear of the media is still a big problem – the media here is scary. If we are talking about the generation from 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, there was a big difference between them and English media and I think a few of them have admitted that.

“You were monitoring where the wives were, are the players going to have a couple of beers? For me that is the only logical reason they didn’t win 2004 though they played great football. But 1966 [a burden]? Maybe for their generation, [John] Terry, [Steven] Gerrard, [Frank] Lampard, Rio [Ferdinand]. But do you really think young players like [Jadon] Sancho have ’66 on their mind?”

Gareth Southgate played a part in dispelling the fear. “He’s very open, he’s very calm,” Bilic says. “He’s changed the perspective of the national team in basically no time. He’s giving a lot of young players a chance – they are begging to play for England, they want to impress him and the fear has gone.

“The expectations are also lower. Last year at the World Cup in Russia, it was the first time where you were almost happy just to be there. Let’s be honest, you were celebrating the win against Colombia like this (waves arms). The papers were not full of ‘This is our time’ or ‘It’s now or never’. You can see the players are enjoying it, ‘We want to be there’. It’s not a case of ‘Oh my God, I have to report to the national team.’ They can’t wait to play for England. They want to be there because they are not afraid.”

How it works in Croatia

That is always the way with Croatia. They’re fearless. “It is unbelievable how good we are for such a small country,” Bilic reflects of the 4 million population. Bilic’s home-town of Split, population 250,000, has itself produced tennis players such as Goran Ivanisevic and Mario Ancic and basketball players of the quality of Toni Kukoc, of the Chicago Bulls, and Dino Radja, of Boston Celtics. “We are talented, we are tall, strong. We are good for collective sports,” he says.

“In Croatia, when you are a kid, things aren’t put on a plate for you. You have to think. When you want to cross the road, you have to watch out [for] the cars coming. No matter that you have a pedestrian crossing. In Western Europe, you don’t care, you walk!

“I was good in school, but I had to help somebody who wasn’t good in my class. I had to spend time with her, teach her how to write if she was struggling. Everything is about clicking together and feeling for each other and that’s right for team sports.”

“In that part of Europe, people also had to stand up for themselves throughout history. “You had to stick together,” Bilic concludes. With that, he was up and out, back to training, back to his footballing fix, back to coaching current Championship leaders West Bromwich Albion.

Slaven Bilic, “a good person”

There he is managing West Ham hopeful Grady Diangana who got introduced to senior football at West Ham by Bilic and was now brought to West Brom on loan by his former manager.

In the summer Diangana initially was set to join Championship rivals Derby on a temporary basis, but Bilic made a last minute call to his former employers in a bid to hijack the deal.

And Diangana has since gone on to shine for the Baggies with the winger having scored four goals and registered five assists in 15 outings.

Asked if he feels he ever gets preferential treatment from Bilic, Diangana said: “No – I think he treats everyone the same and gives everyone respect.

“He doesn’t pick one out more than any other. 

“He’s a good person.”

And that seems a perfect quote to end this article.

No talking about West Ham v Tottenham then …

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