Slaven Bilic is confident he will be confirmed as West Ham United’s manager within the next 48 hours, although the success of his application may hinge on the club’s current first choice, Marcelo Bielsa, signing a contract extension with Marseille.
The club’s co-owners, David Gold and David Sullivan, and the vice-chairman, Karren Brady, interviewed Bilic over the weekend, with the 46-year-old having made clear his desire to return to the club with whom he spent 18 months as a player. The super-agent Pini Zahavi is undertaking the negotiations on the Croatian’s behalf and verbal agreement has been reached in principle on the contract. The former centre-back is increasingly hopeful he will now secure the position vacated by Sam Allardyce last month.
Yet, while a number of other high-profile targets have proved elusive, there remains the possibility West Ham could still persuade Bielsa to depart Stade Vélodrome and take up the challenge in the Premier League. The Argentinian has been offered a two-year extension by Marseille, with whom he finished fourth in Ligue 1 after a difficult second half to the campaign, and was due to speak to the club’s president, Vincent Labrune, on Monday night. Those talks were expected to determine whether he was to extend his stay in France to a second season. West Ham are monitoring the situation with interest.
They have explored numerous options since it became clear there would be a parting of the ways with Allardyce and had hoped to lure Rafael Benítez back to the Premier League – only for the Spaniard to take over at Real Madrid. David Moyes and Carlo Ancelotti were sounded out, while Sevilla’s Unai Emery and Lekhwiya’s Michael Laudrup have opted instead to extend respective contracts at their current clubs. Yet Bielsa – a coach of huge standing within the game for the impact he has made with, among others, Argentina, Chile and Athletic Bilbao – was always higher on their list of candidates than Bilic.
The Croatian is aware he has never been first choice for the position, not least because his experience of coaching at club level is limited largely to brief spells at Besiktas and Lokomotiv Moscow. More eye-catching was his impact with Croatia and while his pursuit of the role may effectively boil down to others rejecting the chance to take over, he hopes his affinity with West Ham from his playing days ultimately sways negotiations in his favour. He would seek to bring his compatriot and erstwhile assistant, Nikola Jurcevic, with him as his No2, as well as a new first-team coach.
This is a critical appointment, given West Ham’s move to the Olympic Stadium in 2016, with efforts to strengthen a playing staff who will compete in the qualifying stages of the Europa League early next month already under way and being overseen by the head of recruitment, Tony Henry. There is interest in the Sampdoria midfielder Pedro Obiang, who would cost about £4.6m, and Marseille’s winger André Ayew, who will be a free agent when his contract expires at the club next month. The Ireland goalkeeper Darren Randolph will join on a free transfer when his contract at Birmingham City expires later this month.
