Slaven Bilic has acknowledged that it hurts him and West Ham United to see the club’s name dragged through the gutter by the hooligan minority.
The manager was more keen to talk up his team’s result against Chelsea from Wednesday night, when a 2-1 home win put them through to the EFL Cup quarter-finals, where they will face Manchester United at Old Trafford.
It was West Ham’s third win in succession in all competitions and it suggested that they had turned a corner after a difficult start to the season. But it was overshadowed by the trouble in the stands at the London Stadium, upon which West Ham have promised to clamp down. They intend to serve banning orders on 200 of their fans, who they saw on CCTV committing various offences during the game.
Bilic was asked whether he felt the club’s reputation was being dragged through the gutter by the minority. “Yes,” he replied. “It does hurt. Of course it does. The club didn’t deserve it; the players don’t deserve it, definitely; the fans didn’t deserve it. The majority of them, of course. The big majority. Vast majority.”
Bilic wanted to look forward to Premier League visit on Sunday to Everton, the club for whom he once played. “I don’t think the players have been distracted [by the off-field issues],” he said. “I think they are totally motivated and really concentrated on the game on Sunday.
“We really felt like home [against Chelsea]. Everything that we have been talking about before the game, about the new stadium being a home ground as the Boleyn ground was for so many years – we really felt the crowd behind us in the game against Chelsea. It was loud, they were really behind us. It was great support, apart from that thing [the crowd trouble], of course.”
